Don’t blame Jane
Ugh. This is what happens when the ignorant watch “creative” adaptations.
To fans of Austen, who wrote Sense and Sensibility, adapted for the screen by Emma Thompson, whose hand is in this script, too, this is worth the fuss. For the rest of us, it is a ponderous soap opera.
Pride and Prejudice? Ponderous soap opera? Ye God and all the little fishes.
Austen’s female-dominated universe is intolerable, to borrow a term from the story.
Son, if you had even a nodding acquaintance with the story, such a comment might be permissible. As such, stand still while we wield the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness upside your melon. *WHACK!*
Dang, that’s a thick one. Better take another swing. *WHACK!*
The story’s focus is the Bennets, a family with many daughters parented by a bystander father (Donald Sutherland) and an overbearing mum (Brenda Blethyn at her creakiest). They flit, sniff and tromp about–rarely without the music
blaring–as they play with ribbons, gossip about others and yammer on at the dining table.
Not Jane’s fault. Not her fault. NOT. JANE’S. BALLY. FAULT!
This is the late 18th century and, since the family farm doesn’t make much money,
It makes two thousand pounds per year, actually. In today’s money, roughly a hundred grand–or $175,000. Do you make that much, Mr. Big Shot Movie Reviewer? Hmm?
Director Wright lavishes this adaptation with glimmering touches of color, luminous lighting and graceful movements, and the pictures are breathtaking.
Oh, fine, say nice things about Mr. Throw Gritty Realistic Mud All Over Jane Austen And You Stuck-Up Prissy Janeites Can Go Jump In The Lake If You Don’t Like It. We tried to tell him, but nooooooo.
Macfadyen and Dench are notably underrepresented though Knightley, Blethyn and screenwriter Deborah Moggach are featured in location interviews, which lend themselves to the spirit of the movie.
“I was just trying to capture the spirit of the thing.” (And the first person who can name that movie reference gets a thousand points that don’t mean anything.)
February 28th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
“To fans of Austen, who wrote Sense and Sensibility, adapted for the screen by Emma Thompson, whose hand is in this script, too, this is worth the fuss.”
His opinion is as shaky as his sentence structure.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
I don’t think people who have no concept of grammar should be allowed to write reviews, or really to write much of anything. And these are probably the same people who find Austen’s language antiquated. Honestly…
February 28th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Get out the cluebat, Mags. The HBO “First Look” feature, part of the new DVD release of Wright’s P&P, reports that Jane Austen was one of seven children. Eight, HBO, eight. (Poor George, slighted again.) This is basic Janeite knowledge. Have the movie studios considered hiring an Austen consultant?
February 28th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
all heil the Cluebat
February 28th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Despite the gowns, the frills and an orchestral air of romance, each female raises her status only when the male lowers his—from the father to Darcy—and being bewitched, as one gentleman puts it, passes for love.
Er? That wooshing sound would be the point, flying past your head, Mr. Insecure.
I would be offended at the misogyny in this sentence, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. However, I will take a turn with the Cluebat for good measure. *WHACK*
February 28th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
To quote my friend Katie:
“I don’t trust people with bad grammer. I just don’t.”
February 28th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
I’m guessing a hockey movie … Slap Shot?
February 28th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
the two main characters—Elizabeth (muggy Keira Knightley) and the man she supposedly loves, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen)—are hollow. That they fall in love at all is an afterthought preceded by huffy misunderstandings.
Again, not Jane’s fault!!
February 28th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
A thousand points that don’t mean anything to Robin! Slap Shot indeed. One of my all-time favorite movies. (Thereby disproving that Janeites are prudes. “I was trying to capture the spirit of the thing” is about the only good line I can quote without offending someone. Well, other than “Against the rules!”)
March 1st, 2006 at 6:32 am
In all fairness, bystander father, overbearing mother, ribbons, gossip and yammering is a fairly accurate description of the Bennetts. In that particular sense, I thought the movie was true to the source - it was believable that Darcy would find these people an impediment to being with Elizabeth (if, that is, the film had actually bothered to make anything of his claim that it was Elizabeth’s family that was giving him pause beyond retaining the single reference to it in the first proposal).
I can’t find it in myself to condemn this reviewer too much (except for the grammar in that one sentence, which is indeed atrocious). He sees the film as it is - a tepid romance whose lovers lack even a smidgeon of chemistry. He does occasionally draw conclusions about Austen, but not that often - is it really that important that he be told that all these flaws are ‘not Jane’s fault’?
March 1st, 2006 at 9:42 am
Yes, because he’s drawing conclusions about Austen from the film. And then praising the perpetrator of the atrocities.
March 1st, 2006 at 10:30 am
Maybe my reading comprehension skills are on the fritz, but I didn’t think he did much of either - I thought his criticism was directed mostly at the film itself, and only rarely did he make boneheaded conclusions about Austen.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:54 am
Yes, write a review of a movie adaptation of one of literature’s classic novels while displaying lousy writing skills. Is there even a chance that anyone with a passing familiarity with actual literature would take this seriously? No. But as Mags said, it is the ignorant who can be misled. So perhaps we should simply launch a campaign to educate everyone as to the merits of Jane Austen’s work. I’m doing exactly that; one relative at a time.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:56 am
Oops. Forgot my main point. Doesn’t everyone know that the book is always better than any film adaptation? That is a standard truth, and exceptions are few and far between. My apologies for taking up extra space through forgetfulness.
March 3rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
“My apologies for taking up extra space through forgetfulness.”
So far, this is one site where you don’t get yelled at or get your hands smacked for “wasting bandwidth” or “posting unnecessary messages.” All praise the great High Priestess of Austenblog. (Though she is getting pretty handy with that Cluebat, so I may have to eat my words some day!)
March 3rd, 2006 at 9:29 pm
Deb, I can’t imagine any situation where you would require the services of the Cluebat.
Also, I’ve been known to have serial conversations with myself on the blog, so I can hardly fault others for doing so!