Every Jane Austen-ite girl I know anticipated this newest adaptation of Pride & Prejudice with dread.
Colin Firth's interpretation of Darcy to them epitomized everything anyone could do with the character in the BBC miniseries, in addition to it providing them all they could wish for in an exceptionally literal translation of a novel.
The line outside the Regal Governor's Square 16, which we promptly left for the AMC 20 at the other mall.
I personally recognized the marvelous acting done by Firth and Jennifer Ehle in the miniseries, but it wasn't as entrancing to me as, say, the French TV miniseries version of The Count of Monte Cristo. I could appreciate it, but it doesn't inspire the rabid rewatchability felt by so many Austen-ites.
The new film version really fires on all cylinders for me though. Matthew MacFadyen's Darcy is exceptionally well-sculpted and relatable, and the supporting cast more than do their part. Keira Knightley doesn't defy any expectations per se, but she does play the part of Lizzie Bennett very capably.
Donald Sutherland plays Mr. Bennett quietly and authentically, never going for the stereotypical father part, and though Brenda Blethyn goes the other direction, playing Mrs. Bennett extremely high-energy, her tack on the character is constantly entertaining. Jena Malone pops in as a delightfully oblivious sister Lydia, one among a family that--heaven forbid--actually resemble one another.
Judi Dench walks in sometime past the halfway point, raising the stakes as she always does. Just a week or so ago, I re-watched to 2002 Importance of Being Earnest with her as Lady Catherine's spiritual cousin, Lady Bracknell. She may end up a nominee in the Supporting Actress category rather than Lead Actress, but who knows as this point.
As a whole, the movie left my friend Aaron and I, both single guys in a "He's Not That Into You"-world, moderately deflated afterward. We both immediately said something to the effect of "I wish women would let you be 'bewitched by [them], body and soul" and the two female friends with us merely sighed and made swooning sounds about how pretty MacFadyen was.
The only hangups I had were related to suspending the disbelief of the time period and the propriety associated with it, not because I don't believe that's how it was, but because I've seen this sort of "society separates us" type story many, many times. Let's face it, most movies set in this time period are exclusively about this topic; however, this one does manage the material very well.
Cowboy On the Street
Black Friday: n. (1) the day after Thanksgiving, (2) typically the busiest shopping day of the year, (3) depending on your point of view, a pox on humanity
The line outside the Tallahassee Best Buy early Friday morning.
Regardless of definition 3, there were a couple unbeatable deals on gifts I bought for people that I knew no one else wanted. The side benefit would be standing in lines with soccer moms and other types who could give me a different angle on holiday movies.
One lady was really an art cinema enthusiast who saw In Her Shoes for the millisecond it was in town first-run. She was looking the most forward to Narnia and The Family Stone just for the cast, not taking particularly to the trailer or poster.
A woman behind us actually made a sound of disgust about that poster. Good job marketing, you've upset the red-staters.
A sherriff's deputy I met at the mall said he and the family don't go out to the movies too much, mostly getting DVDs from Blockbuster.com. He said the DVDs don't replace them going to the movies, there just isn't a lot it's worth taking the small kids to see.
He did say they were really eager to take the kids to see The Polar Express at the local IMAX, and IMAX was the best reason to take the kids, because they love it. He was really surprised to hear King Kong wasn't going IMAX, but Harry Potter was instead. That fact along meant that he might wait for video. Who knew IMAX was that big a deal to some people who don't usually go to the Mall-O-Plex.
A New Lease
Rent begins by setting the "4th wall" on fire and throwing it out the window. Regardless of what a big pile of critics are saying, Rent will continue to be well-regarded for a long while partly thanks to the genuine undercurrent of challenging expectations and authority.
In Shakespeare's time, there was no such thing as the fourth wall acting teacher after acting teacher tries to convince us prevents actors in character from knowing there's an audience ten feet away. Soliloquies in Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and countless other classics are meant to be personal moments for characters to have a side conversation with him or herself as well as the audience.
"Shall I heare more, or shall I speake at this?" is directed at the audience just as "Seasons of Love" is at the outset of Chris Columbus' rather impressive adaptation of Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize-winning opus. Part of the reason that this one song, moreso than any other in the show, is singled out as the show's signature, is that it's the catchy thesis of every single character's journey from "December 24th, 1989" to the final, lasting image of the movie.
Alleging that "Rent is more dated than Hair," or that it's "no Chicago" (both said by Leah Rosen among many others) not only misrepresents the film's message and outs a bunch of critics as being as shortsighted as cable news networks...not to mention the preposterous idea that Chicago was worthy of all the praise it got in the first place.
Rent: The Matinee Experience
I personally enjoy Rent's music and the show as performed live (I've only seen tours), but in its live performance, you really have to be prepared for digesting a multi-course meal. Columbus' film makes the narrative leaner and more easy to digest. I'm a big stickler for faithful adaptation, but not at the cost of the accessibility of the material.
"Contact" and "Goodbye Love" are two of the more notable omissions from the film score, in addition to shorter snips here and there throughout. Similar to the recent Harry Potter movie, friends who were much bigger RENTheads than I didn't really notice until they consciously thought about it.
Speaking of RENTheads, they are precisely the group I was most worried about going in to see the movie. RENTheads have a habit of singing along to the music in cars, in hallways, at Karaoke night, on a boat, and in your house. Just like eating Green Eggs and Ham, they'll sing the score anywhere, any time. Hell, I've done it, but some of these folks are serious about their right to sing "One Song, Glory" in restaurants that don't have Karaoke going on at the time.
I went to see Rent twice on opening day. Not because I'm a massive RENThead, but because, for a variety of reasons, I think it's a very important film and wanted to gauge multiple reactions.
I saw the early show with my friend Aaron, who had never heard the music, seen the show, or anything. He enjoyed the movie a great deal, but had the bad fortune to sit next to one of the more virulent RENTheads in the audience. She recited lines before they were spoken, as well as lyrics.
Aaron Pagel: collegiate actor, producer, good guy, and Pac-Man champion.
People brought their 2-8 year olds, and no one left. Jesse L. Martin and Adam Pascal, moreso than anyone else, got a huge reaction from the crowd every time the show was theirs. I was also struck by how definitively "end of the 20th Century" it was when Mark (Anthony Rapp) says "smile for Ted Koppel, officer." The film is dated in a good way, capturing the spirit of multiple generations at once.
The audience's hearts heaved in unison at the funeral as soon as Martin reached the end of the first line, wailing an undulating "youuu" to the congregation. There was laughter at the somewhat Bon Jovi music video-style car approaching shot of Roger, and a young man a couple rows behind me called out "anyone have any tissues" as the credits rolled. Lots of content smiles greeted me in the lobby as I walked past everyone else.
See the film at a cinema with a decent sound system, or high belting notes will crack, and the bass will be fuzzy, as it was at Tallahassee's AMC 20.
The Late Show
The late show was full of obnoxious RENTheads, with a number singing (not quietly) along with the movie. I wasn't the only person annoyed by this, with a couple people audibly saying "no singing" throughout.
The Nokia ski commercial telling people to shut off their phones got applause. Whoever cut it really has hit the thing on the head. Thank you for keeping us awake, whoever you are.
"Tango: Maureen: killed like crazy, and when at first watch, the little tags after the end of songs felt a bit like applause breaks, this time, I'd further broken down my expectations and read them as codas, putting a nice button on the number. The lag after "Santa Fe" (the song, not the sequence) was a bit empty, regardless.
Hilariously, in the middle of "La Vie Boheme", a small gang of Abercrombie & Fitch wearing trust fund babies got up and left.
The themes are so simple and universal that they transcend the term "dated" and more accurately could be called "timeless".
The rage of the Gen-X crowd and the complacency of the Boomers came through strikingly and genuinely, the "us" versus "them" division that has blurred severely with the homogenization of the two during the corporatization of America and the rest of the world. RENT, good or bad as it may do in the box office, will live on as a definitive end-of-an-era story.