For Your Viewing Pleasure: Lost In Austen
Lost In Austen, an ITV mini-series that I've stumbled upon purely by accident, proved to be - surprisingly enough - the best piece of "filmed fanfiction" I've seen in a while. It made me laugh out loud several times, it made me almost tear up, and the final episode kept me at the edge of my seat. (The very fact that I got off my arse to update my LJ should be enough proof of how much I liked it). It's a perfect treat for anyone who has ever read and enjoyed both Pride and Prejudice and a harlequin romance :D
The official summary -
Jemima Rooper stars as Amanda Price - the frustrated romantic who lives for reading and adores the characters in her Jane Austen books. Then one day she discovers a gateway in her flat and ends up being transported to her favourite world, the world of Pride and Prejudice. But is the “true” story in danger of being thrown off track by her presence?
- doesn't sound terribly appealing, but the series is much much better than what you may expect :)
It is Mary-sue-ish and self-insert-ish, of course, but it's also pure fun: silliness that doesn't need to and shouldn't be analysed too deeply becasue its main purpose, delivered oh so perferfectly, is to entertain. It's an immensely feel-good series, if sometimes a bit awkward, and it pushes one of my biggest buttons, the one that's painted fire-engine red: You Get What You Believe In. Just like that. No pseudo-science explanation, no technobabble - the fantasy you believe in and strongly desire to be true suddenly becomes true for you. ( I wrote about this before after the Life on Mars finale)
I'm quite in love with Jemima Rooper at the moment, and I think I'll be taking a screencap from LIA with me next time I go get my hair cut, because Amanda's hair is exactly what I wanted but wasn't able to describe to the hairstylists before.
The rest of the cast was also surprisingly good, and their interpretation brought new interesting layers to most characters. The Bennets were likeable, the silliness of the girls was not overdone (like in the 2005 movie *cringe*); Wickham was delightful; Lady Catherine was positively powerful and scary, a real society shark (and not silly/senile!); Darcy was... let's just say he was right up my alley, and - as far as I'm concerned - Elliot Cowan definitely gave Colin Firth a run for his money, and was far better than Matthew Macfadyen.
I'll definitely be buing the DVD when it comes out next week (next week! talk about fantastic timing!), but for now I just want to share, so click to the other post and have fun :)