Pride and Prejudice

Oh, how I love this movie. Its conclusion had both Aaron and I laughing out loud several times, and me encouraging Lizzie to "just KISS him, already!" Aaron also realized that one of the reasons I love him is because he's a Mr. Darcy - a crotchety exterior surrounding a sentimental romantic core. Gotta love it.

The scene where Darcy essentially asks Lizzie to stop toying with him if her feelings haven't changed...oh, my stomach was doing those lovely flip-flops for a while!

I've already discussed the merits of this film, but just wanted to be clear: Mrs. Bennett drives me bonkers. My true sympathy lies with Kitty, since she is going to have to live in that house with just her mother and sister Mary, who is the Jane Austen version of SNL's Debbie Downer. I just hope in her fictional world that she marries soon. Otherwise she risks going mad.

Jane Austen's books don't usually contain a great deal of social criticism (just commentary!), but in the scene with Lady Catherine, Austen comes close to destroying a tenuous hierarchy. Lizzie says, "He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman's daughter; we are equal," which nearly sends Lady C spinning. And yet, in Emma (up next...and highly anticipated by this reader), Emma's main motivation is to uphold that very same hierarchy. It is interesting to see Austen play both sides...it would seem that she's not necessarily using her novels as a soapbox, although she definitely supports marrying for love, and marrying well!

I have decided to use up some of our Netflix queue space with the Austen movies released in the last 15 years. BBC did the whole set in the 60's & 70's, but I'm not sure I want to relive that. If you've seen one of them and are sure that I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT VIEWING IT, please let me know, and I'll be happy to oblige. See, there I go, getting all Austen again. I think it's time to finish.

But before I do, coming up on Masterpiece theater following Sense & Sensibility are A Room with a View, and My Boy Jack, which features Daniel Radcliffe (you know, that guy from the Harry Potter movies) as the son of Rudyard Kipling. It also stars Kim Cattrall, who was in some show called Sex in the City, I think.

And after THAT is Cranford, which I know nothing about except that it features Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton (the ultimate teacher from hell...also in the HP movies). So I will be watching it.