Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice

Personal Rating: 10 of 10

Reason:

This is such a classic movie. I've seen the older BBC version, and I absolutely adored that one. I was convinced that this new movie would be horrible. I was even trying to make it seem horrible in my head as I was watching it, but I just couldn't. It was so enticing. Let's see, why did I like it though? I love the plot, the actors, the scenery, everything! I especially want to address the plot though, the plot was good because of the character changes. Look at the plot section for the details.

Category:
Romance movie. There was some comedy, but it was mainly romance.

Summary:
This Classic Jane Austen book tells the story about the Bennet family, focusing on Elizabeth Bennet. The story begins with the news that a Mr. Bingly is coming to town. Mr. Bingly is a very rich man, and the Bennet first thought is to get him married to one of her daughters. She knows that once her husband dies, they will lose the Bennet estate to
Mr. Collins, a cousin of the Bennet girls. If she can get her daughters married, she can have somewhere to go when her husband passes away. The rest of the story is about the relationships between Jane and Bingly and Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane instantly falls in love with Bingly, but Elizabeth and Darcy get off to a rocky start. It entails many twists and turns, and shows that first opinions aren't always true.

Costumes:
The outfits were awesome. They were very ,era-accurate, and made everyone in the movie look very elegant. One thing I thought about though, was how the Bennets' outfits were almost too eloquent for their position in society-more poor than rich. But maybe that was just my imagination.

Acting:
As always, Keira Knightly pulls off her character quite nicely. I especially like her in this role, though, because Elizabeth is fairly tom-boyish and I think Keira's overall body type and face structure fit the part well. There's also just something about her that makes her mysterious and that was something that helped her a lot in her roll as Elizabeth. All the other characters were awesome too, although I must say that the mother in this version was not quite as entertaining as she was in the BBC version. Nor were Lyddie and Kittie shown very much, which was almost too bad, because they were very entertaining too in the old one. They were pretty good in this one too, though. Mary seemed more sensitive in this one, especially when her father told her to stop playing piano and singing, but I actually thought that was a good interpretation. Darcy, wow, he was good. He couldn't pull of the distressed, love struck emotions like Collin Firth could, but that's a pretty big standard to put him up to. In short, he was good. I was disappointed with Mr. Collins. He wasn't nearly as disgusting as he was in the BBC version.

Plot:
The plot was especially good. The character development in this story always gets me. In the beginning you think, "Wow, I hate Darcy, he's so mean. He's not even that cute, anyway," but at the end you're in love with him. It's almost impossible not to be. Jane's attitude towards Darcy is amazing to see change as well. Going from loathing him, to denying love, and finally accepting it, makes a wonderful transformation. Beware, though, once you see this movie, you will be hopelessly addicted to Jane Austen Films!


Ending:
I loved the ending in this movie. It's very simple, but that makes it all the more powerful. I'll admit I liked the ending in this one better than the one in the BBC version. I won't tell you how it ends though, just believe me that it's good.

Music:
Appropriate scene music. No contemporary music.

Scenery:
I had to add this section because I absolutely loved the scenery. It was simply breathtaking. It looked like it was filmed in Europe, most likely in England, since that is where the movie is set, but I'm not sure. Wherever it was, the grass was amazingly green, cliffs and mountains were elegant, and the skies were beautiful-even when it was raining or skies were cloudy and grey. Like the scene where Darcy first asks Elizabeth to marry him, when it's raining-it was amazing.

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette

Personal Movie Rating: 2-3 of 10

Reason:
I kept sitting in the movie theatre thinking "Okay, the plot's going to pick up any second now, and there's going to be this really powerful scene or something." Yeah, well, that didn't happen. The movie had almost no plot and ended the story when they could have had material if they kept going. It ended when the royal family flees the palace, and doesn't show anything about how they were caught and brought back to the palace and eventually hung. That is the key part of history, for heaven's sakes.

Category:

I don't even know... If I have to say anything, I'd say that it was an artsy film.

Costumes:

Costumes were wonderful. The dresses were very era correct down to the little details like the shoes, accessories, and undergarments. Jason Shwartzman's (Louis XVI) fat suit or makeup job, was amazing.

Acting:

Characters were all very good at their parts, especially Kirsten Dunst. She held the "air" that I imagined Marie Antoinette would- both before coming to France, when she was more shy and reserved, and after she got into the swing of things. Not only that, she gave it a little more flair to make the character more interesting to the audience. Jason Schwartzman did an awesome job of playing Louis XVI, the awkward, introverted character who hardly knew a thing about socializing or running a country.

Plot:

Like I said before, guys, there was no plot, so I have nothing else to say.

Ending:

The ending was horrible- they cut the story off at the best part.

Music:
If I am remembering this correctly, the music was mainly music that fit the era along with a little Indie in there. It was appropriate for the time, but not something that most of us would like.