Bear with me baby, I'm a little behind
For the last two nights, I've had the most enthusiastic dreams. The first was a rather inflamed, shall we say, dream that took place on the set of Gilmore Girls with both Dean aka Jared Padalecki and Jess aka Milo Ventimiglia being there. Except, confusingly, it was sort of like a future-GG, and was set in New York. Sadly I wasn't participating in any of the flagrant stuff - but still I'll put that one down to femmenerd *g* The second was also rather exciting because I was sort of a very hip rock singer in a totally hip, rocking band a bit of a mish-mash between The Gossip, Metric and the Long Blondes. And U2 showed up at our gig - and I gave Bono a peck on the lips. Ha!
Anyway, I went to see Becoming Jane on the weekend. (That Wikipedia link has some wonderful shots of the clothes and stills from the film.) Ahhhhh - James McAvoy-love. ::ahem:: Actually it wasn't too bad - very inspiring stuff for young women, or young women writers, that if you set your mind to something you can achieve it.
As well, the casting I thought very good - James McAvoy and Anne Hathaway did have quite a bit of chemistry, especially in the dancing scenes where their similar heights were exceedingly well-matched and well-exploited by some searing looks passed down the dance-hall. Even though Anne Hathaway is in a fairly long line of American actresses potraying well-loved British authors (and yes, I still think it unfair that there wasn't a British actress around, except for Keira Knightley...) but still she did a good job and apparently has an encyclopedic knowledge of Jane Austen. So she must have been chuffed. And James McAvoy is just lovely, I mean, an actor with a wide range at his control and charm. I thought the build to their falling-in-love was also fairly well done - we needed to believe in his being won over, which we did to an extent, even though I'd guess 90% of the audiences going to see that particular film would be already won over to Jane Austen.
Laurence Fox, who I'd last seen in the abominable TV-film about Charles and Camilla's early romances, exceeded my expectations. Obviously, not hard! But he played a very dour, and boring character who seemed to grow and show hidden depths as the film went on. I thought he did this with intriguing subtlety.
The film was, in essence, a mirror reflection of Pride and Prejudice. Heck, even Cassandra was played by a full-faced, blonde and pretty actress to Anne Hathaway's Jane. Thinking back, the last two P&P productions have had a brown-haired Elizabeth and a blonde-haired Jane. Not wholly unlikely in families, but somehow...hmmm. As the film progressed, though, it did seem like they were setting plot points that would suggest where Ms Austen got her ideas for P&P from. Ahhhhh, there's Mr Darcy's estate. There's his annoying aunt. There's where she got the idea for the elopement. There's the mother who's suddenly becoming more annoying. There's the sympathetic father who's becoming more sympathetic. etc Some of it, particularly the elopement, seemed a bit of a stretch, particularly as at this point I wondered when the film was going to end.
Another point I pondered was whether they'd intentionally set James McAvoy's Thomas LeFroy and Laurence Fox' Mr Wisley, the two love-interests, at cross purposes. The more the film progressed, the more LeFroy turned into Wickham, and Mr Wisley, turned into Mr Darcy. Particularly with his "still waters run deep" comment toward the end - which I'm paraphrasing.
The final act, when it finally came, also seemed a little too reaching for a happy ending, whatever the consequences and despite the fact that the normal happy ending "boy/girl gets object of their affection" could never really happen. Though, in some ways, Jane Austen did get the object of her affections - by becoming a successful writer. Though LeFroy certainly made something of himself - even if his first daughter, tantalisingly for we romantics (and I *do* class myself as one, despite my hesitation over the end), was named Jane. A common name, to be sure, but one that might have held significance. Hmmmm.
It was also bittersweet to see Ian Richardson in his last role.
Also, the guy that played her brother, Henry Austen, was, in a superficial way, quite hot.
New Zealand is going America's Cup crazy with excitement/sleep deprivation at the moment - though it is rather exciting. I just doubt that the rest of the world is noticing the blip ;)
Anyway, I went to see Becoming Jane on the weekend. (That Wikipedia link has some wonderful shots of the clothes and stills from the film.) Ahhhhh - James McAvoy-love. ::ahem:: Actually it wasn't too bad - very inspiring stuff for young women, or young women writers, that if you set your mind to something you can achieve it.
As well, the casting I thought very good - James McAvoy and Anne Hathaway did have quite a bit of chemistry, especially in the dancing scenes where their similar heights were exceedingly well-matched and well-exploited by some searing looks passed down the dance-hall. Even though Anne Hathaway is in a fairly long line of American actresses potraying well-loved British authors (and yes, I still think it unfair that there wasn't a British actress around, except for Keira Knightley...) but still she did a good job and apparently has an encyclopedic knowledge of Jane Austen. So she must have been chuffed. And James McAvoy is just lovely, I mean, an actor with a wide range at his control and charm. I thought the build to their falling-in-love was also fairly well done - we needed to believe in his being won over, which we did to an extent, even though I'd guess 90% of the audiences going to see that particular film would be already won over to Jane Austen.
Laurence Fox, who I'd last seen in the abominable TV-film about Charles and Camilla's early romances, exceeded my expectations. Obviously, not hard! But he played a very dour, and boring character who seemed to grow and show hidden depths as the film went on. I thought he did this with intriguing subtlety.
The film was, in essence, a mirror reflection of Pride and Prejudice. Heck, even Cassandra was played by a full-faced, blonde and pretty actress to Anne Hathaway's Jane. Thinking back, the last two P&P productions have had a brown-haired Elizabeth and a blonde-haired Jane. Not wholly unlikely in families, but somehow...hmmm. As the film progressed, though, it did seem like they were setting plot points that would suggest where Ms Austen got her ideas for P&P from. Ahhhhh, there's Mr Darcy's estate. There's his annoying aunt. There's where she got the idea for the elopement. There's the mother who's suddenly becoming more annoying. There's the sympathetic father who's becoming more sympathetic. etc Some of it, particularly the elopement, seemed a bit of a stretch, particularly as at this point I wondered when the film was going to end.
Another point I pondered was whether they'd intentionally set James McAvoy's Thomas LeFroy and Laurence Fox' Mr Wisley, the two love-interests, at cross purposes. The more the film progressed, the more LeFroy turned into Wickham, and Mr Wisley, turned into Mr Darcy. Particularly with his "still waters run deep" comment toward the end - which I'm paraphrasing.
The final act, when it finally came, also seemed a little too reaching for a happy ending, whatever the consequences and despite the fact that the normal happy ending "boy/girl gets object of their affection" could never really happen. Though, in some ways, Jane Austen did get the object of her affections - by becoming a successful writer. Though LeFroy certainly made something of himself - even if his first daughter, tantalisingly for we romantics (and I *do* class myself as one, despite my hesitation over the end), was named Jane. A common name, to be sure, but one that might have held significance. Hmmmm.
It was also bittersweet to see Ian Richardson in his last role.
Also, the guy that played her brother, Henry Austen, was, in a superficial way, quite hot.
New Zealand is going America's Cup crazy with excitement/sleep deprivation at the moment - though it is rather exciting. I just doubt that the rest of the world is noticing the blip ;)