Thursday, September 04, 2008

Very Lost in Austen

Well I sat down to watch the off new off-kiler adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. Modern girl Amanda Price switches places with Elizabeth Bennett via a portal in Price's bathroom. Uh hum.

Now this could be a good look at how a modern person would adapt, or not, to a totally different world, but it wasn't. Price just takes Elizabeth's place and the story wanders on.

It starts when Mr Bingley first visits the Bennetts and he ignores Jane and is more interested in Amanda's cleavage (the fact is that the girl playing Jane is light years better than Amanda, come on guys!). At the first ball Amanda gets drunk, goes outside for a cigarette and then sticks her tongue down Bingley's throat (She earlier shows her brazillian to one of the Bennett sisters.). Then she has pangs of regret! Bingley seems enthralled by her behaviour, well would he? It just doesn't seem very believable to me!

All we know of Elizabeth is that she is in modern Hammersmith and doesn't seem keen to come back. I half expect she will eventually turn up 3 months pregnant and high on drugs.

It looks pretty and the Austen bits are fairly well done, just not very well done. Its almost like watching the original through a chintz curtain.

My friend Min, who LOVES Austen, said she watched 10 minutes and turned it off in disgust. Well I watched and probably will finish it but I suspect I might go back to watch the infitnitely superior BBC adaptation or read the book!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"All we know of Elizabeth is that she is in modern Hammersmith and doesn't seem keen to come back. I half expect she will eventually turn up 3 months pregnant and high on drugs."

Yes! It seems a very likely idea judging by what we've seen so far.

Give my best to your friend!

Anonymous said...

Someone recorded it for me and I was going to watch it tonight, well that was the plan, now - having read your blog - I just don't know if I really should watch it at all!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was all very embarrassing, and the 'kiss' was the silliest bit of an already daft plot.

How could Mr Bennett accept Amanda's presence so calmly, especially in the gear she was wearing? Her hair never moved; she went to the dance without any attempt to pull it back.

Like your friend I wanted to turn it off as it was making me feel ill... but it was car crash TV!

I remember feeling annoyed by parts of the film showing Whoopi Goldberg trying to be a 'yankee' at the court of King Arthur, but on the whole it was better fun.

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