Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Pride and Predjudice and Johhny Cash

I love Jane Austen. I've spent many a rainy day curled up with her books, I never get sick of them! Pride and Predjudice is by far my favorite. I just love Lizzy Bennet, she is so feisty!

Keira Knightley is starring in the latest film adaptation of the book. (In fact you can enter to win a trip to London on the movie web site.) It hit the theaters this week and of course I will be seeing it as soon as I can cut out a couple of hours for myself (I seriously doubt Scott will want to see this one with me, it being a chick flick and all.) I like Keira Knightley, but I have doubts that this entire story can be faithfully told in only a couple of hours. I will give it a chance though!

My favorite film adaptation of Pride and Predjudice is the 1995 A&E mini-series starring Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy Bennet and Colin Firth (sigh) as Mr. Darcy.

The supporting cast is remarkable, particularly Alison Steadman who plays Lizzy's mom, Mrs. Bennet and Crispin Bonham-Carter who plays the delightful Mr. Bingley. You can rent this film version at Netflix, it is a two disc series so it can provide wonderful evening viewing for at least a week!

On a slightly different note, Scott and I saw Walk the Line yesterday afternoon and I'm already chomping at the bit to see it again!

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were absolutely incredible. I can't recall the last time I was so completely convinced by a performance, let alone by two performances in the same film. Phoenix absolutley channels Johnny Cash, (it's almost creepy) and Witherspoon's portrayal of June Carter Cash is absolutely dead-on.

I can't comment on this movie without mentioning the music. Both actors did their own singing in the film and I was nothing short of stunned by their abilities. We've seen some actors turning to music in their films over the last few years but nothing compares to what you will see with the Phoenix/Witherspoon combination! They positively sizzle!

The supporting cast is strong, the pacing is good and although the story is familiar it is powerful and interesting.

Definite 5 star movie here. Oscar alert!
posted by GodlessMom, 6:15 AM

7 Comments:

Blogger Saur♥Kraut said:

I agree, my fave version of Pride and Prejudice was the same as yours! But one of my fave movies of all times is Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson. I have never had a movie that actually moved me to tears of joy at the end. Her performance is earth-shatteringly poignant. That woman is the most incredible female actor that we have in this generation, IMHO.
Posted at 12:47 PM  

Blogger GodlessMom said:

I love Sense and Sensibility too and I agree that Thompson is one of the finest actors of this generation. I have never seen her in anything where she wasn't completely convincing. She is awesome!
Posted at 2:34 PM  

Blogger Lucy Stern said:

I loved that version of Pride and Prejudice...

I'm looking forward to seeing Walk the Line also...My kids went and saw Harry Potter on Sunday night and they seemed to like it...Bonnie said they tried to cram too much into the time alloted. Happy Thanksgiving
Posted at 4:11 PM  

Blogger nigel paddell said:

Walk The Line really hit home for me. Johnny Cash is the famous person who reminds me most of my dad. (Oddly the runner up is Mike Watt.)
The vocals were great. First "Ray" now this, it's a biopic arms race and I love it.
Posted at 4:12 PM  

Blogger Saur♥Kraut said:

BTW, you should also see her in Dead Again with her ex-hubby - EXCELLENT
Posted at 4:46 PM  

Blogger dAAve said:

Thanks for the comments on Walk the Line. Definitely wanna go see it.
Posted at 7:11 PM  

Blogger Fred said:

We were thinking of taking in a movie instead of shopping on Friday. Hmmm, maybe this will be the one. Then again, The Missus will probably back out and hit the malls. I hate going to the movies alone - I'd feel like such a loser.
Posted at 10:07 AM  

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