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Jane Austen’s Family Jewels
I watched again a particularly dismal film version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. So dreadful I shudder to recall its failings. The writers took such liberties with the dialogue they gave lines to the wrong characters, moved conversations from one part of the book to another and the very worst crime of all – made stuff up.
One complete out-of-time puzzler, they made the climax of the story a chase scene. A chase scene! And unbelievably it’s the heroine who is literally running around town after her man. What the ?!?!? Eventually at the peak, at the moment where they profess they still love each other, she has copious amounts of spit in the corners of her mouth. Gross! Sure, she’s just finished running across town, but come on, isn’t there a gaffer, best boy or dolly grip who could have interrupted with a “Wipe your mouth, luv. That’s icky”. And the kiss that follows ranks very high as the worst in film history.
Anthony Head (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) played the foppishly proud Sir Walter, and he was probably the best part of the film. His part was small, however, so that isn’t saying much. Still as I groaned and rolled my eyes through the the hour-and-a-half I started to think
4 Responses to “Jane Austen’s Family Jewels”
Boy that is a toughie. How about Little Women? i am just asking.
And ps by the by, I have been trying to add a book to the list but “IT” won’t work. Am I doing something wrong?
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin of Master and Commander series: at sea, drinking sherry, eating soused hog’s face, playing stringed instruments and fighting Bonaparte
I want to be in the Bronte family. All those chilblains and tuberculosis, and Heathcliff howling on the moors. cool.
Mum has a good one. The girls had ‘jolly fun’ growing up poor, didn’t they?
Sue’s non-fiction choice was a freaky sort of family if you read the biographies, but the kids ran the show in that household. As long I wasn’t one of the sisters shipped off to die at boarding school this would be an interesting family.
Not sure about Randy’s Jack Aubrey. I haven’t read enough to give canonical evidence, but I wager if you grew up as Jack Aubrey’s younger brother you’d have a hero complex or an inferiority complex. And if you were Jack’s older brother you’d probably hate the swaggering bloke for stealing all the attention from Mum and Dad. If you were his sister, mind you, I imagine he’d bring home some interesting fellows to flirt with.