Not Prideful Nor Prejudice Enough

I watched Pride & Prejudice, the 2005 version, last night. I am sorry, but NO NO NO. This is just not good enough, which is such a shame. I was so excited to see this film. I love Keira Knightley and after seeing (and adoring) Matthew Macfadyen for the first time in the Masterpiece Classic Little Dorrit, I was doubly excited, if only to see him take on one of my favorite characters, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. But, this was not to be.

I should have known it would not compare to the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle's amazing portrayals of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. I dare say any other version could! Though, I do have the 1940 version with Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy, in my netflix queue. We shall see about that one.

Anyway, back to this mucked up 2005...thing. Why do they have to mess with the dialogue? Jane Austen wrote it all out for us. It's perfect the way it is and well suited for the screen with little to no changes necessary. I even tried to look at this film as it's own entity. As if I hadn't seen another version or read the book. That's really hard to accomplish when you love these characters and this story so much. I just couldn't do it.

Yes, the scenery was amazing, gorgeous, breathtaking, blah, blah, blah. But it's not about that for me and, I'm certain, many other P&P fans. It's about Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy!! It is the repartee between the two. Oh, I could just sit and listen to them verbally jousting forever. Poor Mr. Darcy. It felt as if I'd hardly seen him in this film. He was too soft. Not forceful enough. I don't know if that was Macfadyen's fault or the director's. Oh, I hope it's the latter.

I'm finding it hard to even put into words how I feel about any version of this story. I think Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth were reincarnations of these characters. They just lifted the subtleties of the characters off the page. You can't overact with these parts. Everything was more civilized in the early 1800's. I imagine their words were more carefully chosen and illustrative of the emotions, which were kept hidden just under the surface. The whole movie felt rushed, too. I guess that's the advantage of a two part TV series as apposed to a 2 hour movie.


I will say, though, that I do think Keira Knightley did a respectable job as Elizabeth Bennet, if nothing more than by just being herself, which I get the impression of her as being a feisty, strong willed and opinionated woman. But poor Mr. Darcy, who I felt was in the very capable hands of Matthew Macfadyen, came off as a, well, a wimp.

I think I need to wash this version from my mind. I think I need a little Firth and Ehle therapy.

What about the rest of you? Anyone else feeling my pain?

The Trouble With Revision. Trouble is right.

Okay, after posting my first blog ever, I've already come back to revise it several times. How in the world do people do this? How can you ever feel it's complete? How do you keep from editing over and over again? Because, really, it can always be better than it is.

See, this is the thing. I'm pretty much one of about a bagillion lazy people in this world. I have great ideas rolling around in my head and I need to get them out of there and make room for new ones. I was hoping this blog would help but right now it's just keeping me from doing other work. Like that appliqued monkey I'm supposed to be finishing up.

Oy. We'll see.

Going Back

In honor of my first blog, I'd like to go back a couple years....okay 20 years to be exact. I was a senior in high school. I really loved Star Trek and shamelessly pilfered from it for a Creative Writing contest. This is probably the first thing I ever won, or came close to winning. I can't remember if I won 1st or 2nd place, but really, does it matter now? Well, I guess it would to my best friend, who also won either 1st or 2nd place. Either way, we were both winners. So, here it is, my 1st or 2nd place winning entry:

"The Trouble With Revision"

Revision....The Final Draft. These are the voyages of the deadline-meeting writer. Their continuing mission...to relocate blocks of text....to seek out strange new grammar habits...to boldly correct where no man has corrected before.

Writer's Log: Stardate 1:21:1988, I seem to have stumbled upon a sentence that doesn't fit into the rest of the text. Should I abort the mission and surrender to the enemy? No! I'll use parentheses to remind myself to put the sentence in its proper location later on.

Meanwhile, on the paper's surface...punctuation in the wrong place, no capitalization. Damn it Chief! I'm a writer, not a Starship Captain! I can't just set my pencil on stun and expect my misspelled words to disappear. Please think logically sir. When the final paper is ready, I'll transport it up to you and you can judge for yourself.

There we have it. Another voyage of revision completed. Warp 10 Sulu. Get us out of here...and fast.