“The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” (2012 – 2013) — YouTube series review | |
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single viewer in possession of a good internet connection, must be in want of a new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. | |
At any rate, as an addict to P&P, I certainly am, “in want” that is… | |
For about the last year or so, I have fallen into the well which is YouTube. I am beginning to fear it (my addictions to YouTube and P&P) is like the prison exit in the third episode of the “Batman Trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises” – you can climb and climb, but eventually you slip and fall back in. | |
Periodically, YouTube feeds me a morsel of P&P as a temptation to restart my viewing addiction. And, once again, it succeeded. Over the weekend, I re-watched the 1995 BBC version of P&P starring Colin Firth. I have already reviewed this version, but not individually, so I’ll have to add that to my list of things to do (sometime). Anyway, after coming back to YouTube, they were prompting me to go see a clip from another version (2003 – P&P: A Latter-Day Comedy) which I have not seen nor was I aware of. …And, then there was a link to “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KisuGP2lcPs). Huh? “What’s that?”, I ask. | |
My interest piqued, I clicked, and so began another marathon session of P&P. The series is presented in 100 (yes, one-hundred) vlogs episodes, each running between a few minutes and 8-ish minutes. (There are also a number of side vlogs, which I have not yet viewed.) The series is meant to be a multi-media / channel creation with the characters (and actors) also having social media presence on other sites: FaceBook, Twitter, etc., which serves as an adaptation of the classic romantic novel: “Pride And Prejudice“, written by Jane Austen. | |
The series stars Ashley Clements as Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet; Julia Cho as Charlotte Lu (Charlotte Lucas in the book) is Lizzie’s best friend and often the director / editor of her vlog; Laura Spencer as Jane Bennet, the eldest of the Bennet daughters; Mary Kate Wiles as Lydia Britney Bennet, the youngest Bennet child (the flirtly one); Christopher Sean as Bing Lee (Charles Bingley in the book) is a young, wealthy (eligible) Asian-American medical student who has moved into The Netherfield House in the same neighborhood as the Bennets; Jessica Jade Andres as Caroline Lee (Caroline Bingley in the book) is Bing Lee’s sister; Maxwell Glick as Ricky Collins (William Collins in the book) is a former classmate of Lizzie and Charlotte’s, who asks that he be addressed only as Mr. Collins; Daniel Vincent Gordh as William Darcy (Fitzwilliam Darcy in the book); Wes Aderhold as George Wickham (the cad in the book and adaptations); Craig Frank as Fitz Williams (Col. Fitzwilliam in the book) is Darcy’s friend and colleague; and, Allison Paige as Georgiana “Gigi” Darcy (Georgiana Darcy in the book). | |
Obviously, as a vlog / diary, this version is set in modern times and therefore has many alterations in the details of the story to make it conform to the “PC” standards of our time. However, never fear, the basic romance / love story is the same: boy and girl meet, boy and girl seem to dislike each other. After much travail, love wins out… Happily ever after. Blah, blah, blah… Whatever, right? | |
Yes. Pretty much. But does it work and is it entertaining? That would be a YES and a certainly! I thoroughly enjoyed the series and plan to revisit the channel to catch the side lines and other bits which I skipped in order to race through the main story. It turns out there is a “real” company called Pemberley Digital (http://www.pemberleydigital.com) which exists to adapt classic works into new media format(s). Who knew? (By the way, Pemberley is the name of the estate Darcy lives at in the P&P book.) | |
Final recommendation: very highly recommended!! Even with the “modernization”, the series follows quite closely to the original book and the three sisters are actually outstanding actors in their respective roles – with special kudos to Ashley Clements who is outstanding throughout the series and Mary Kate Wiles who really hit it out of the park in the last few episodes. If you are a P&P fan, you will definitely want to check this out on YouTube. It is also available on DVD’s, but I’m not sure what extra value you get for your $60. There must be some great bloopers and behind the scene gags for that price. | |
LoL, now I want to go find some of the other P&P adaptations which I was not even aware of until I started researching this post. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2018 | Does Fatalism Equal Mental Health? |
2017 | Choice |
2016 | Growing Worlds |
2015 | Change The Tide |
Martyr, n. | |
2014 | You, Too! |
2013 | Bitter Stand |
2012 | Lost For Words |
2011 | On Market Reactions… |
Posts Tagged ‘Pride And Prejudice’
Another P&P Review
Posted in Reviews, Series (TV or Streaming) Review, tagged #tlbd, Allison Paige, Ashley Clements, Bing Lee, Caroline Bingley, Caroline Lee, Charles Bingley, Charlotte Lu, Charlotte Lucas, Christopher Sean, Col. Fitzwilliam, Craig Frank, Daniel Vincent Gordh, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennet, Fitz Williams, Fitzwilliam Darcy, George Wickham, Georgiana "Gigi" Darcy, Georgiana Darcy, Jane Austen, Jane Bennet, Jessica Jade Andres, Julia Cho, Laura Spencer, Lydia Britney Bennet, Mary Kate Wiles, Maxwell Glick, Pride And Prejudice, Ricky Collins, The Dark Knight Rises, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries -- series review, vlogs, Wes Aderhold, William Collins, William Darcy, YouTube.com on March 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Still More Prejudice
Posted in Movie Review, Movies, tagged Amy Brenneman, Bride And Prejudice, Bridget Jones's Diary -- movie review, Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Hugh Dancy, Hugh Grant, Jimmy Smits, Kathy Baker, Kevin Zegers, Maggie Grace, Marc Blucas, Maria Bello, Moderate Movie Recommendation, Moderate To Strong Movie Recommendation, Pride And Prejudice, Renée Zellweger, RottenTomatoes.com, The Jane Austen Book Club -- movie review on February 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »
As promised a week back, I am reviewing a couple more “Jane Austen” related movies I’ve seen recently and adding a few comments to the two movie reviews I’ve already done. | |
The new reviews are for “The Jane Austen Book Club” and “Bridget Jones Diary“. The comments are for “Pride and Prejudice” – the BBC 1995 version and the “American” 2005 version. | |
“The Jane Austen Book Club” (2007) — movie review | |
Six Californians – five women of varying ages and a man – start a monthly book club to discuss the works of Jane Austen, only to find that their own romantic relationships — previous and current — begin to resemble modern day adaptations of Austen’s novels. | |
Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), is shocked when her husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits), leaves her after 20 plus years and three children to become involved with another lawyer at the firm he works at. Jocelyn (Maria Bello), her unmarried best friend, distracts herself from her unacknowledged loneliness by breeding dogs (“dominance issues”). Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a young French teacher, in possession of a worthy husband Dean (Marc Blucas), yet distracted by sexual fantasies with another man / boy (Kevin Zegers) named Trey. I say “boy” because Trey appears to be in high school / a student. The eldest female, many times married Bernadette (Kathy Baker) yearns for one more chance at happiness. Allegra (Maggie Grace), (Sylvia and Daniel’s lesbian daughter,) has problems with her lover – who is a writer using Allegra’s life stories as the basis for her own work. And Grigg (Hugh Dancy), the lone (rich and athletic) male joins the book circle because he’s trying to form a relationship with Jocelyn. | |
As romantic movies go, this one is as good as most, but not particularly believable in any of the final results – all happily ever-afters. Be that as it is, I thought it was an okay movie. Mostly, it’s entertaining without being sappy or taking the easy comedic route that many “chick-flicks” devolve into in order to keep hapless male partners watching to the end of the movie. What I found interesting were the few moments where the actors actually discussed the Austen books and more specifically the characters and views on love, romance, commitment and relationships in general. And, as stated in my prior review of P&P book, it prompted me to promote the original work to the top of my reading list. | |
Final recommendation: moderate to strong. Enjoyable as light entertainment, but I think your time is better spent actually reading Austen’s works. | |
“Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001) — movie review | |
This movie was recommended to me by my daughter as a loosely based modern-day adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride And Prejudice“. It stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones (Elizabeth Bennet character), Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver (George Wickham character / the cad) , and Colin Firth as Mark Darcy (Mr. Darcy character / the hero). I believe it’s more accurately described as an adaptation of the book by the same name as the movie. The “only” two things I found similar to P&P was Firth played a character named Darcy in both the 1995 BBC version of P&P (and in this movie) and Darcy and Bridget have roughly the same relationship track to get to their happy ending. Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl detest each other. Boy comes around. Girl comes around. Issues about the cad. Happy ending. | |
The movie is a rom/com. Is it? Mildly romantic, yes. Mildly comedic, barely. To tell the truth, I don’t get it. The overall review on RottenTomatoes.com is 80% for both reviewers and audience. Zellweger was nominated for Best Actress… Really? I don’t get it. Somewhere in the character is a nice person struggling to overcome drinking, smoking, vulgar language and a terrible wardrobe. Other than that, she’s just the kind of person you want to see your son bring home to meet you. Truth be told, I found her three friends in the movie much more interesting than Bridget and wished there were more of them and less of her. Hugh Grant was ok in the cad role, but I prefer him in the nice guy roles where his sardonic / ironic comedy work well with his charm. The most enjoyable part / character in the movie is Colin Firth’s Darcy. While lacking the physicality of the 1995 P&P role, he still presents himself as a man’s gentleman. I’ve seen Firth in at least a half-dozen roles and continue to enjoy his work. | |
So, final recommendation: moderate (at best). The movie wasn’t bad, it just didn’t appeal to me. Probably because I was hoping for something more closely aligned to P&P. | |
Additional comments: | |
Having just read the original work by Austen, I’ve now gone back to re-watch the 1995 BBC adaptation and the 2005 movie version. What did I find? As much as I was critical of the annotations while reading the book, they were very helpful in understanding both versions of the movies. In addition to seeing where there were cinematic variances from the original work – in locations and dialogue – the notes explained some of the details which I completely missed in both earlier viewings. Reading the original work greatly enhanced my appreciation of the dialogue in both movies. Reading the notes, my appreciation of the parks / woods, carriages, gowns, and buildings. I guess I’m admitting I was incorrect in being overly critical of reading an annotated version of an original work. Preference change? Nope. If you prefer nuance and greater detail – BBC and 6-plus hours of viewing. If you prefer “Hollywood” looks and production – the two-hour 2005 is better. One minor comment on “production”… My DVD copy of the BBC version gets out of sync between the voice and picture in multiple places. I don’t know if this is the discs or my PC, (it’s probably my PC,) but I found it annoying and a slight negative in this review / comparison. And, finally, I tried to go back to see “Bride And Prejudice” (the Indian – modern-day version of P&P), but it didn’t come up on NetFlix. I guess, I have to catch it sometime in the future when it comes back on-line. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2017 | …And With It Civilization |
2016 | Just Like My Mother |
2015 | All Omissions Are Mine |
2014 | Precise Order |
2013 | Uh, No. Not Really… |
Deep Regions | |
2012 | A Pre-Valentine’s Day Message |
2011 | Easy Like Sunday Morning |
May I Have A Little More, Please… | |
2010 | Valleys and Peaks |
The Original
Posted in 2018 Book Review, Book Review, Reviews, tagged 2018 Book Review, Highly Recommended Book, Jane Austen, Patricia Meyer Spacks, Pride And Prejudice, Pride And Prejudice - book review on February 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Book Review: “Pride And Prejudice” (1813©) | |
Today’s book is a classic “romance” novel written by Jane Austen. The edition / version I have is the “Annotated Edition” edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks which came out in 2010 and was a Christmas present to me from my wife (Hilary). It was actually a present a couple of Christmas’ ago and I’m just getting around to reading it (and reviewing it). | |
The story is probably familiar to most: Prince Charming meets girl, they offend each other, they fall in love, lots of secondary story lines build the plot, they fall in love, Charming saves the day, they marry and live happily ever after. Did I mention they fall in love? Charming is a stuffy, rich aristocrat (hence “Prince”). Girl is a vivacious, but prim and proper young woman who is from landed gentry, but not rich (only relative to Prince). And, despite their both being “stuck up”, they fall in love… | |
I came to this book via the movie (2005), BBC mini-series (1995), movie (Indian version 2004), movie (1940) and a secondary source – “The Jane Austen Book Club” – movie (2007). I have reviewed the 2005 movie (here), and the Indian version (actually titled “Bride And Prejudice“, here), and the BBC and 1940’s version (here). I recently viewed the “Book Club” movie, but I haven’t gotten around to reviewing it. It did, however, prompt me to bump the book version up to my “read next” list from my “get around to” list. | |
So, if I’ve clearly enjoyed the movies so much, what did I think of the original story and – more specifically – this version? This “book” started off a VERY hard read. I have not read very many “annotated” versions of anything before and I found it quite a labor. For one thing, the book starts off with a 20-plus page restatement of the book and why the editor feels it needs to be annotated. If I had not read the original book or seen any of the movies, I would have been completely put off by the editor completely giving away the story. If I wanted a summary at the start, I’d have simply purchased Cliff Notes to read before the book. | |
Next, the annotations “probably” doubled the length of the print in this version. The original was about 350 pages, but was a small book. This version is almost 450 pages, but half of each page is allotted as space for the notations and images. Indeed, some of the notations, spill over either onto the next page (which makes for a confusing read) or take an entire page (which disrupts the flow of the reader). Also, some of the notations highlighted the same information repeatedly or were used as citations of evidence to support arguments and interpretations made in the introduction / summary. I would estimate it took me fully 80 to 100 pages before I got used to the notes. Having said this, they were occasionally interesting additions which added to my understanding of the story. I guess I’m saying that, in the end, I found the notes a useful addition to the story. | |
Separate from the annotations, did I enjoy the book? Yes! Tremendously. And, I highly recommend it! Not being a student of English history, I cannot vouch for the historical accuracy of the book, but really, is that why anyone EVER reads a romance novel. I certainly don’t… What I would say is that as a fan of the various cinematic versions, I am very happy to have finally read the original novel. | |
Of course, now I’m sure to be tempted to read her other five books and see their movie versions. At the very least, I’m going to go back and re-watch the BBC and 2005 versions. Just ’cause that’s the way I roll… | |
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On This Day In: | |
2017 | Being Nice |
2016 | Zero To Some = Most |
2015 | Born More Obligated |
2014 | Rage And Fury |
2013 | Successful Children |
2012 | For God So Loved The World |
2011 | Go Cheeseheads!! |
Structured Mentality | |
More Prejudice
Posted in Movies, tagged Aishwarya Rai, Amritsar, Bollywood, Bride & Prejudice - movie review, Chandra Lamba, Charlotte Lucas, Colin Firth, Elizabeth "Lizzy" Bennet, India, Jane Austen, Jennifer Ehle, Keira Knightley, Lalita Bakshi, Martin Henderson, Matthew Macfadyen, Mr. Darcy, Pride And Prejudice, Sonali Kulkarni, Strong Recommendation on November 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Bride & Prejudice – movie review | |
I recently watched the Indian / Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice“, slightly retitled as “Bride & Prejudice” (2004). To demonstrate my lack of culture, I first became aware of Austen and “Prejudice” when I saw the 2005 version with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen in the lead roles of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Bennet and Mr. Darcy. I don’t remember when I first saw the movie, but I believe it was somewhere around 2010. I have since watched it at least a half dozen times. I’m not sure what it is, but I find the whole story and setting fascinating. I have also watched the 1995 version made for BBC TV starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as Darcy and Elizabeth. I must admit Ehle doesn’t hold a candle to Knightley, but Firth is every bit as good as MacFadyen, even though he doesn’t have the physical presence of MacFadyen. In any case, because this is a series instead of a movie, I must say I prefer the series because there is more time to develop the characters. | |
Okay, enough background. Back to the actual movie review… | |
In this version of the Jane Austen novel, Mr. William (aka Fitzwilliam) Darcy is an American played by Martin Henderson and Lizzie Bennett becomes Lalita Bakshi who is played by Aishwarya Rai. The unmarried sisters (Lalita is the second oldest) and their family are plugged into a modern plot that spans London, Los Angeles, Bombay/Mumbai and Goa. The family and four daughters live in Amritsar, India (a country town) — which is trying to be true to original Austen story, but which has its own airport, so I’m not real sure how “true” that is. | |
The movie has the most problems because it can’t make up its mind whether it wants to be a romantic drama or a musical-romantic-comedy. It tries to be both and therefore doesn’t really succeed at either. To be honest, most of the numbers made no sense and I would have preferred they went for more drama. Having said this, I have seen a few other Bollywood movies and I think they were just trying to sell to their home market. Other than that, the big problem was how to bring the story up to modern day times. The plot device here was to make the characters international and hence the side trips (LA and London) being used to demonstrate the wealth of the Americans and the Londoners. | |
How is the acting? Sadly, just so-so. Henderson fails to strike the right notes (for me) as Darcy. Darcy is the character which most draws me to the story (and I’m not sure why), but Henderson lacks the physicality of MacFadyen or British style of Firth. Aishwarya is obviously the most beautiful of the Lizzie’s, but she seems wooden in this role. I have not seen her in anything else so I don’t know if beauty is all there is or not, but from this role I’d judge it is. Strangely enough, I didn’t even find Aishwarya to be the most camera “friendly”. I thought that honor went to the actress Sonali Kulkarni as Chandra Lamba (Charlotte Lucas – Lizzie’s best friend in the British versions). | |
Does the movie work, though? Is it entertaining? Yes and yes. I liked the dancing and most of the songs. The colors and the energy of India are very attractive. Even though the acting wasn’t quite what I thought it could be, the movie is another Austen happy ending. Final recommendation: strong recommendation as the Indian version of P&P, particularly if you are a “Prejudice” fan – as I am turning out to be. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2014 | Say What? |
2013 | Daring Errors |
2012 | Are You Comfortable? |
I Just Have To | |
In Flux | |
2011 | True New |
2010 | A Job Well Started Is A Job Half Done |
I See With My One Good Eye | |