Pride and Prejudice
- I freely admit that I’ve never read any of Jane Austen’s books.
Derailed
- Who knew Jennifer Aniston had it in her to play conniving, manipulative, and dangerously sexy?
Pride and Prejudice
I freely admit that I’ve never read any of Jane Austen’s books. The Bronte sisters were forced upon me in high school and Wuthering Heights was enough to set me off literature of the period. All of that said, the current film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.
Centering around Keira Knightly’s seemingly effortless portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet, and for those unfamiliar with the story, this is not so much a comedy of manners (as Austen is often described) but a romance of manners, for Austen is nothing if not one of the earliest romance novelists. The use of language is superb, sharply delivered by all the actors – Donald Sutherland does his best befuddled father as Mr. Bennett (and yes, it bothers me that Austen didn’t bother to give her men first names) – and I suspect that much of it is lifted right from the book.
The cinematography is lush and earthy at the same time, portraying the British countryside (though I think the entire movie was shot in England) in that gauzy way we in the U.S. have come to expect historical pieces to look.
There has been much talk that the U.S. version of this film includes a tacked-on, over romantic ending that is not included in the book. It’s very easy to spot said coda when watching this film but unless you are expecting an absolutely faithful adaptation of the novel for the screen it, in truth, doesn’t detract from the film in the slightest.
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Derailed
Who knew Jennifer Aniston had it in her to play conniving, manipulative, and dangerously sexy? Maybe the few of us who actually saw The Good Girl. Granted, dangerously sexy wasn’t something she dragged out of her actor’s bag of tricks for that film, but it certainly is here.
Derailed throws Charles Schine (Clive Owen) a harried ad executive, bored with his marriage and worn down by the cares of his life (bills, a sick child) together with Lucinda Harris (Aniston) a good Samaritan who pays his fee on the train after he leaves home with no cash in his wallet on work-day morning. Lucinda is, to Charles’ eyes, everything his wife no longer is: together, sexy, and interested in him.
With too many twists and turns for me to discuss coherently here without revealing more of the plot than I should, Derailed is at times subtle and clever and at times as obvious as a sledgehammer. It is always a brutal film.
The one ding against it is the restraint with which Clive Owen plays Charles Schine. Gifted with an amazing character arch, we see very little of the change in Charles on the surface. Perhaps that was a deliberate move to service the plot twists on the part of Owen and director Mikael Håfström. With an actor as skilled as Owen I believe they could have taken a half a step forward and still maintained the opacity needed to protect the story.
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