(no subject)

Okay, in the interest of not spouting off where I haven't evidence to support my opinion, I watched Pride & Prejudice at home this weekend (see, feiran, I told you my parents would have bought it almost as soon as it came out).

( I have the satisfaction of saying I was quite right in my low opinion of this adaptation, and I go on about it in length. )

Yet allow me to surprise everyone and confess there was something I enjoyed about Pride & Prejudice: Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy. I sincerely loved the vulnerability of his Darcy. It's against the grain of Elizabeth's impression, but it's a fair reading of the character who is, by his own admission, a shy sort in unfamiliar company. He shows effectively how Elizabeth unnerves him. And his opener adoration and dotage on Georgiana is touching, if a tad out of period. When he proposes to Elizabeth the first time and she rebuffs him, his disappointment bordering on despair and desolation is tangible enough to move me to pity. And that's not a small feat given all that came before that point. Bravo to him. He's still not handsome enough to be Darcy, nor are his line readings where Darcy is supposed to be arrogant proud enough, but he is a sympathetic cut of the character, and a new take that might have worked when buoyed with a stronger edit of the story and a better lady opposite him.

Otherwise, this movie would do best as a coaster. Or as pollution in a swamp--as in that's where the DVDs should end up.