Lost in Austen (starring Jemima Rooper)

This is a DVD - or rather a DVD set, as there are two discs in the box - which I think I must have bought on special offer, or even at a charity shop some time ago. It has been in our to-be-watched drawer for some years, but we finally decided to watch it on Monday. We did not realise at first that it was in four episodes originally shown on independent television in the UK; the whole is three hours in length. So we watched the final episode the following evening.

The star of this drama is a young woman called Amanda (Jemima Rooper) who is obsessed with Jane Austen books, and loves ‘Pride and Prejudice’ best of all. So when, one day, she discovers Elizabeth Bennett (Gemma Arterton) in her bathroom, she thinks she must be dreaming…

However, a portal has appeared which enables Amanda to enter the world of the Bennets two hundred years earlier, leaving Lizzie to cope with the 21st century…

On the whole, we thought it very well done. The Bennett sisters are well cast, as are their parents. Hugh Bonneville makes a delightfully acerbic (but kind-hearted) Mr Bennett, and Alex Kingston is wonderful as a rather younger, considerably slimmer and less fluffy Mrs Bennett than I am used to. (It took me until the end of the first episode to realise why she looked so familiar - Mrs Bennett is really nothing like Doctor Who’s ‘River Song’ where I first came across the actress!).

The whole is somewhat surreal; even more so than ‘normal’ time-travel stories, since ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is, of course, entirely fictional. So when Amanda’s appearance starts to mess up the expected relationships and storyline of her favourite book, she tries to put things right. Inevitably things go wrong,

It’s a light-hearted story, somewhat crude in places, but there’s plenty that’s amusing too, and we found ourselves smiling more than once. Amanda begins to realise that things are not as idyllic in the late 18th century as her imagination suggested. And while she attempts to fit in with the period and culture, she makes rather a lot of mistakes, which doesn’t quite fit with her being such a fan of the books.

We had no idea where the story was going to go, and thought the fourth episode particularly well done. There were some excellent scenes when we finally learn how Lizzie has got on in the 21st century, and some romantic tension as Amanda struggles to know what to do for the best.

On the whole we thought it very enjoyable. The rating of 12 seems about right to me. There are plenty of innuendoes, some which are decidedly not Austen, but nothing overt. However this would not make much sense to anyone who has not read (or at least seen the films of) Jane Austen’s books.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews

Music and Lyrics (starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore)

We wanted to watch something light, and not too long. Browsing through DVDs we have not watched for about ten years, we decided on ‘Music and Lyrics’. We first saw it in December 2007, and had forgotten almost everything about it. My sole memory was that a girl watering Hugh Grant’s plants ended up writing some lyrics for him…

That is, in fact, the essence of the plot. But there’s a whole lot of characterisation, interaction and storyline that I had entirely forgotten. The film opens with somewhat cheesy 1980s style pop music videos, with Hugh Grant (and others) dressed in the relevant style, made up to look as if they were in their twenties. It’s very impressively done.

The main action, however, takes place in the 21st century. Grant plays Alex Fletcher, a somewhat washed-up musician who used to be part of a successful band. However his songwriting partner went solo, successfully, while Alex found his career drifting downhill. Now he’s limited to a few faithful fans - in their forties - and gigs set in theme parks, or country clubs. He’s considering taking part in a corny TV series about 1980s has-beens…

Then his agent Colin (Scott Porter) tells him there’s a great opportunity for him, as the current teen idol Cora (Haley Bennett) wants Alex to write a new song for her. Cora is into Eastern mysticism, combined with seductive dancing, and Alex tends towards 1980s romantic songs, but he agrees to try, even though he has just three or four days to produce an entire new song.

Unfortunately, Alex can only write music, not lyrics. And Sophie (a very ditzy Drew Barrymore) who has appeared to water his plants, turns out to have a surprising talent for suitable lyrics…

Alex and Sophie don’t work together easily; she needs to be fed regularly, and wants to work on a chair close to the piano. Alex wants to work through the night, and keep his distance. The chemistry between them is excellent, and it’s inevitable that they’re going to fall for each other, but this is kept hanging for quite a while. Indeed,Sophie’s older sister Rhonda (Kristen Johnston) is much more excited about being around Alex, as she is an enormous fan.

There’s a great deal of humour, much of it in one-liners from the straight-faced Alex. He is a character ideally suited to Hugh Grant’s style of acting. The fast-paced dialogue between Alex and Sophie works well, and there are some amusing side scenes, too. Several times we found ourselves chuckling.

We watched some of the extras after seeing the film, and were not surprised to learn that both Grant and Barrymore did all their own vocals; more unexpected was that neither of them considers themselves musical. Hugh Grant had done very little dancing prior to this film, and was in his fifties when it was made. He not only learned to sing and dance, but took some piano lessons for the first time.

All in all, I enjoyed ‘Music and Lyrics’ very much. The overall romance might be predictable, but the way it happens is very well done.

The rating is PG (PG-13 in the US); there’s only minor bad language and one non-gory slightly violent scene. The inevitable ‘bed’ scene is only shown as having taken place, with hints of nudity but nothing explicit. The scenes with Cora are sensuous with young women in revealing clothing. However the film is unlikely to have much appeal to children anyway. But it's excellent one for older teens and adults, particularly for those of us who were young in the 1980s and remember the kinds of music videos that were popular.

Highly recommended, if you want to see something lightweight and amusing.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews

Sense and Sensibility (starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet)

It’s many years since we acquired and first watched the DVD of ‘Sense and Sensibility’, produced in 1995 with an all-star cast. I remembered it being an excellent adaptation, but not much more. When we decided to watch it on Monday night, I had a good recall of both the story and characters, as I re-read the book ‘Sense and Sensibility’ just a few months ago.

I’m not always a fan of films made on books, but most of those based on Jane Austen’s novels have been excellent. With one or two notable exceptions, admittedly. But ‘Sense and Sensibility’ ranks very highly, in my view. It’s the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, played respectively by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. While the latter was only around twenty years old when this film was made, Emma Thompson was in her mid thirties. Yet the two manage to portray, entirely believably, the sisters who were just 17 and 16 in the book.

Margaret, their younger sister, is fifteen in the book and feels mostly extraneous. But in the film, she is nearly twelve. She’s ‘bookish’ and also likes to climb trees. I thought this change an excellent one; Margaret (Emilie François) is lively and provides some light humour in her outspoken innocence.

The story begins with the loss of their father, and thus of the family home. The laws of inheritance ruled that this mansion must be left, along with the bulk of their father’s fortune, to his only son, John Dashwood. John (James Fleet) is half-brother to the three girls, and rather too easily guided by his materialistic and unpleasant wife Fanny (Harriet Walter). The girls and their mother go to a ‘cottage’ owned by her cousin Sir John Middleton (Robert Hardy) who lives with his mother-in-law Mrs Jennings (wonderfully portrayed by the late Elizabeth Spriggs).

The theme of the story is the contrast between the ‘Sensible’ Elinor and the ‘Sensitive’ Marianne. Each falls in love; each suffers betrayal. But the ways they handle their losses are very different. I’m not sure I entirely believed in the late Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon - Rickman was too often cast as villains, and although he plays Brandon perfectly, it was hard not to see him as Severus Snape. Edward Ferrars is a rather young-looking Hugh Grant (although he would have been 35 at the time the film was produced) - and Grant plays him as his usual slightly bumbling very English man, albeit in 18th century costume. As for Mr Willoughby, played by Greg Wise, I found him somewhat overdone; perhaps deliberately.

While inevitably a film is different from a book, with less introspection and more visuals, I felt that this adaptation was very faithful to the original. My husband hasn’t read the book, but enjoyed the film, vaguely recalling the first time we saw it. There were one or two places where we chuckled, mostly at the wonderfully ironic and brilliantly timed asides from Mr Palmer, perfectly cast as Hugh Laurie.

The rating is U (PG in the US). As befits an upper-class film of this era, there is no violence, no bad language, and no intimate scenes. The prudish might blink at the amount of cleavage shown from time to time, and the story requires mention of illegitimacy and libertines. But if young children were interested in the story (unlikely), these references would go over their heads.

Recommended highly to anyone who likes character-based historical fiction, and to all fans of Jane Austen. It would be well worth watching, too, by anyone studying ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at high school or university.

Other recommended adaptations of Jane Austen books include:

• Persuasion
• Pride and Prejudice (BBC series)
• Pride and Prejudice (2005 film)
• Emma (ITV version)

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews