To BeeGee? or Not to BeeGee?

 

That is the question that I struggle with each time I visit Netflix lately …

I know that I’m in a very small minority of the population who has fond memories of this movie. I’ve never met anyone else who liked it. See, I haven’t watched it since it came out, in 1978.  I was 8 then. Now Maddie is right about that age, and she seems to be getting into musicals …

so I just naturally thought …

But then, I’m afraid that once I watch it again, it will be all over. I’ll have to concede to all those who I have ever defended the movie to that it did, in fact, suck ass.

Is it worth the risk? I just don’t know.

March of the Emperors

Hee!

Little Miss Sunshine

Last night, we saw Little Miss Sunshine, with Steve Carrell and Greg Kinnear. Since I don’t get to see a lot of movies, it may not impress you much when I tell you that this is the best movie I’ve seen this year, but it definitely is. Maybe the best movie I’ve seen in a few years. While keeping you laughing all throughout the movie, some very poignant moments are woven into the story, and the notion of family, in all its dysfunctional glory is celebrated in a unique, authentic way. Greg Kinnear is always, always wonderful in anything he does, and Steve Carrell was given the chance to prove that he can be a lot more than just funny. The entire cast was excellent. Don’t be surprised if this film comes up a lot at the Oscars.

In other news, I am just wrapping up my first ever rental stay on another blog, The Opiate of the Masses. I’d like to thank Poppy for all of her warm hospitality this week… She has a great blog that everyone should check out. I’ve had a lot of fun hanging out in her sidebar!

Happy Friday!

Deuling Darcys

I was watching one of the extras on the new Pride & Prejudice DVD. This extra was an HBO special they ran before the movie was released. The announcer said something that made me absolutely steam for a minute. She referred to Lizzie's pride and to Darcy's prejudice. Is she mad?? Everyone knows that Darcy is the one guilty of Pride and Elizabeth the Prejudice. After thinking about it, however, I guess she had a point… If you had not read the book and only watched that movie…that could be a fair interpretation.

I have been largely positive about MacFadyen's portrayal, and I still am. But, I have to admit, there was absolutely no Pride in his Darcy portrayal. I really liked that he focused on that shy awkwardness. It was something I had never really read into the character before myself, but when I re-read it after watching this movie, I could totally see it. I liked the way MacFadyen portrayed Darcy's brimming feelings for Elizabeth, without giving up any of the reserve of the character.  But, there's just no getting away from the fact that Darcy is also proud. He admits it himself.

On the other hand, Colin Firth, who everyone absolutely adored in the role of Darcy for BBC's version, really nailed the Pride aspect, and a lot of other aspects. There were two scenes in particular (the proposal, and the first meeting at Pemberly) that I felt like he had stolen directly out of my imagination. But, I didn't feel like he did a good job at all letting people see his developing feelings for Lizzie, which made it difficult for me to totally love him in it.

I guess, over all, my ideal would be to take Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen out of the new movie and have them put instead into the BBC miniseries in place of Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehles (whose portrayal was also just mot quite my ideal of Elizabeth). I don't really think it's MacFadyen's fault that there wasn't any pride in Darcy…I think that was the script. Joe Wright wanted to soften him up a bit, just like he wanted to warm up the relationship a bit between Mr. & Mrs. Bennet just because he preferred to think of it that way. I'm not so much a purist that it makes me completely hate the movie…but I do wish he would have been a little more true to the characters.