[Sorry for rogue underlining that I couldn't fix in first two paragraphs.]
A Britbox special offer paved the way for me to complete my survey of Jane Austen adaptations, starting with the ne plus ultra of Pride and Prejudice (Wiki), starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and a host of players just perfect in their roles. In six episodes, this series has plenty of room to breathe; it’s quite true to the text and its innovations are well judged, exemplified by putting the oh-so-famous opening line into Lizzy’s mouth, thrown off as a sarcastic riposte to her mother (a horrifyingly comic portrayal by Alison Steadman). Susannah Harker is a perfect Jane Bennet, and the relationship of the sisters is touchingly similar to that between the writer Jane and her sister Cassandra, though they both remained maiden aunts. After thirty years, the series has been restored digitally to a pristine quality that makes settings and costumes look like new, quite a contrast to my initial viewing, from a VHS tape made by my mother off the original broadcast. Whatever your own pride or prejudice, I defy you not to enjoy this rendition.
I followed up by revisiting two versions of Persuasion. Roger Michell’s from 1995 (Wiki), starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, remains my favorite by far, second only to the much more expansive P&P, and tied with the contemporaneous S&S. The 2007 version (Wiki) seems barely adequate now that my original moment of being smitten by Sally Hawkins (as Poppy in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky) has passed, since the rest of the production does not come up to her level.
Whilst on Britbox, I took another look at Romola Garai as Emma (Wiki) in a 2009 BBC series that definitely takes liberties in opening out the book, but is not as misleading as some latter-day Austen adaptations and imitations. Romola plays Emma believably but somewhat broadly; Jonny Lee Miller is good, if a little too hunky, as Knightley; but Michael Gambon is perhaps the best Mr. Woodhouse. The period design is pretty reliable, with well-placed emphasis on domestic architecture, and the supporting actors are adequate if not memorable. Going more for the comic than the ironic, the only thing this has over other versions of Emma is the amplitude of four episodes, but it does not come close to the pitch-perfect richness of the 1995 P&P.
To complete my survey, I returned to the 1940 Pride and Prejudice (Wiki) starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, who both perform okay in a ludicrous MGM production that puts the “costume” in “costume drama.” With no taste for verisimilitude, appropriate Regency design, or fidelity to Austen’s text or tone, the film plays for broad domestic comedy and goes for a mid-Victorian look, with absurd leftovers from the Gone with the Wind shoot. The “Golden Age of Hollywood” attempts literature but reduces it to abject formula.
Finally, as I was about to close the book on Austen, I noticed that Hulu was also now offering the canonical 1995 P&P, plus a follow-up that I had never seen, a 2008 BBC/Andrew Davies adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (MC-79). We’re halfway to Bridgerton here, as this two-part series opens with a “tasteful” sex scene with little reference to the book. If Davies’ stated aim was to make viewers forget the Emma Thompson version, this was a woeful failure, with not one of the performers being more memorable than the film’s, though Dan Stevens does a good job imitating Hugh Grant. But – E.T.>Hattie Morahan, Kate Winslet>Charity Wakefield, Alan Rickman>David Morrissey, Greg Wise>Dominic Cooper. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watched this Bronte-like take on our dear proper Jane, and was eventually won over by Morahan’s performance in contrast to dear Emma’s.
This deep immersion in Janeite lore certainly revealed the limited circumference of her world, and the repeated reliance on certain types and tropes, but also the consummate artistry of her “fine brush on two inches of ivory,” and her penetrating wit about the personalities within her purview.
So in sum, the Austen adaptations to watch are the Jennifer Ehle P&P, the Amanda Root Persuasion, the Kate Beckinsale Emma, the Emma Thompson-Kate Winslet Sense & Sensibility, the Frances O’Connor Mansfield Park, and the Felicity Jones-Carey Mulligan Northanger Abbey, with Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship as a bonus.
Also on Britbox, Stonehouse (MC-77) follows in the tradition of the successful Hugh Grant series A Very English Scandal, dealing in three hour-long episodes with the feckless peccadillos of a real British politician. The title character is played enjoyably by Matthew Macfadyen, in a manner much like his performance in Succession, with his real-life spouse Keeley Hawes as the long-suffering wife.
Flying to and from the U.K., I sort-of-watched some so-so films on which I will report briefly. Wicked Little Letters (MC-58) boasts Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, two must-see actresses as far as I’m concerned, and a host of familiar British faces, including Anjana Vasan, the star of We Are Lady Parts. Billed as a “black comedy mystery,” it’s mainly a cozy BBC-worthy visit to an actual seaside hamlet a hundred years ago, where two neighbors start out as friends but wind up as courtroom adversaries. But, oh those two.
Coming back, comfortably provided with better screen and headphones, I overlooked poor reviews to watch Bob Marley: One Love (MC-43), which I liked well enough, but nowhere near as much as the 2012 documentary Marley. Kingsley Ben-Adir makes a credible reggae star (more so than as either Malcolm X or a Ken), and Lashana Lynch is good as Rita Marley. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green does what he can with a script by committee and under Marley family supervision, which does not venture far beyond the usual rock musician biopic tropes. But the film does revive a lot of kick-ass music.
High over the Atlantic, I also got halfway into popular recent films Anybody But You and Challengers – do not need to see more of the former, but may look to see the rest of the latter when I can.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (MC-63, AMZ) is better than its Metacritic average would suggest, as you might expect of a film that stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Toby Jones, and Andrea Riseborough, with narration by Olivia Colman. Will Sharpe’s off-kilter tale relates the life of eccentric late-Victorian artist Louis Wain, whose hugely-popular pictures of cats are credited with changing their cultural image from feral ratcatchers to household pets. The film is all over the place, narratively and stylistically, but well-designed, and grounded in the touching if tragic romance between Cumberbatch and Foy. Not nearly as twee as it might have been, absent the admirable acting.
Ethan Hawke has carved out a commendable career for himself, so I ignored poor reviews to watch his directorial effort Wildcat (MC-55, Kanopy), starring his daughter Maya Hawke as Flannery O’Connor. She also plays characters in fragments from some of O’Connor’s stories, in a literal interpretation of their autobiographical impulse. Laura Linney plays her mother, in real life and in the stories. A lot of actors prove willing to pitch in on another actor’s film, so there are several well-known cameos. And the overall look of the film, with its period recreations, does not bespeak a strained indie budget. So I respond to this film as I’ve responded to the work of its subject – interesting, but not really hitting me where I live. Still, a pretty good attempt at making a biopic out of the solitary life of a writer.
After this potpourri, next up will be a lengthy survey of recent offerings on Hulu.
