Latter Day Pride and Prejudice

Yesterday was my first day in training at my hopefully new job. I can't tell you anymore about it because I signed a confidentiality agreement, which means my lips must be sealed. All I can say is it's a lot harder than it looks to do this job.

After my hard day at work, I decided to relax by watching the Mormon version of Pride and Prejudice (yes, there is a Mormon version, who knew?). What I mean by that is, the filmmakers are Mormons, and the movie was set in Utah, and what clearly appears to be Brigham Young University and nobody drinks in the movie, or has coffee unless it's decaffinated.

In this version of Jane Austen's classic tale, Elizabeth is an aspiring novelist who clearly has no idea how to properly format a manuscript, Jane is a foreign exchange student from South America, Kitty, Lydia and Mary are also students but not related to Elizabeth or Jane. They all live in a big house on campus owned by Lydia's family. Bingley is some kind of entrepeneur who sells classic music for canines CD's on television, and Darcey (who is still English) turns out to be a big time publisher. Collins doesn't end up with Charlotte Lucas, who in this version is played by Carmen Rasmussen from American Idol. Instead he ends up with Mary. The big misunderstanding with Bingley comes about because he sees Collins proposing to Jane, and mistakenly believes that they are engaged (?).

This movie wasn't bad, but it didn't have the sparkle, with or ingenuity of the other Austen adapations, Clueless or Bridget Jone's Diary. I couldn't figure out if Elizabeth was a undergrad or a graduate student, it's not really clear. She also has no desire to get married. She meets Darcy in a book store where the first misunderstanding occurs when she's slightly rude to him, and he's rude back. Because none of the women are related, they're just roommates, it lacks the tension of the book. It might have worked better if they had all been sorority sisters.

Also, Wickham in this version, isn't particularly venal, he's just a bigamist. And the actor playing Darcy was completely miscast. He started out well but then became completely goofy over Elizabeth. The great thing about Colin Firth was that he maintained Darcy's dignity even in the most ridiculous situations in Bridget Jones. The movie might have worked better if Darcy had been a visiting English professor who looked down on American English students, and he had to be Elizabeth's advisor or something.

There were some funny scenes of Elizabeth and Jane, depressed over their sorry love life, wandering the supermarket in their pajamas buying ice cream, and an incredibly convenient scene where Elizabeth falls asleep on a mountain and wakes up when it's dark and rainy. She conveniently stumbles upon a cabin owned by Darcy, where he and his sister are holed up for the weekend. It just didn't make sense.

I still haven't seen the Bollywood Bride and Prejudice, but I plan on renting it soon. I loved Bend it like Beckham, so I'm hoping that this movie is just as good.