The Importance of Being Earnest

Movie recommendation of the week ~ The Importance of Being Earnest.

This is a bit of an older movie (2002), but it is just so funny that the story is quite timeless. It's based on a play by Oscar Wilde. Set in 1890s London, the story revolves around 4 main characters: John [Jack] Worthing, Algernon [Algy] Moncrieff, Gwendolen Fairfax, and Cecily Cardew.

Jack Worthing lives in the country where he takes care of his ward, Cecily. But he often has to go to the city to take care of problems created by his brother, Ernest. The thing about Ernest, however, is that he doesn't exist, and is just an excuse Jack uses to go to the city whenever he feels like it. On top of this, in the city he is known to all of his friends as Ernest Worthing... so, Jack in the country, Ernest in the city.
Ernest/Jack wants to marry Gwendolen (who thinks his name is Ernest), but her mother won't allow it due to the fact that Ernest/Jack's background is so sketchy (his parents are unknown, as he was found as a baby in a handbag at a train station).
Gwendolen is the cousin of Algernon, who is also a friend of Jack's. Algernon also thinks Jack's name is Ernest, but soon discovers the whole Jack/Ernest story. When he hears about Cecily, he decides he wants to meet her. Now, Algernon also has a made-up person in his life, called Bunbury ~ a very sick friend in the country, who tends to always coincidentally needs Algernon to help him at the times his aunt throws dinner parties. With this excuse, Algernon takes off to the country, but goes to Jack's house instead.
Arriving at Jack's place, he tells everyone he is Jack's troublesome brother, Ernest Worthing. Cecily ends up falling in love with Ernest/Algernon; and in the meantime, Gwendolen decides to disobey her mother, and comes to see Ernest/Jack regardless of her mother's disapproval.
I'm sure you can guess what happens... Gwendolen and Cecily discover that neither men are Ernest, and in fact, there is no Ernest at all!

Ernest/Jack and Ernest/Algy

It is, overall, quite a hilarious movie. Colin Firth as Jack/Ernest is fantastic ~ he is so funny! And Rupert Everett plays Algernon, and is just as funny. Reese Witherspoon is really cute as Cecily, and the movie also includes Judi Dench and Frances O'Connor.
There's a really fun wit to the whole story, which makes it ridiculous and lovable at the same time. And another bonus is that the costumes are great! (especially Cecily's dresses) It's a light-hearted, clean, funny, just plain good movie; which is why I recommend it!

Gwendolen and Cecily

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trailer:


A funny scene where Colin and Rupert show off their musical abilities:

Sailing to the End of the World

I was super excited this weekend, because Friday was the release of the latest Narnia movie on DVD ~ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I bought it right away, since I've been anticipating seeing it for so long. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favourite book in the Narnia series. It's so chock full of things for the imagination ~ from mermaids and dragons, to dufflepuds and a human star. Thankfully, the movie didn't let me down; just like the last two, it was great!

The main storyline is this:

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third book in the series (fifth in chronological order) of The Chronicles of Narnia, returns Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, as well as their priggish cousin, Eustace Scrubb, to Narnia. There they accompany King Caspian on a voyage to find the seven lords who were banished when Caspian's evil uncle Miraz stole the throne. This perilous journey brings them face to face with many wonders and dangers as they sail toward Aslan's Country at the eastern end of the world. 

(Eustace, Edmund, Lucy and King Caspian)

It was great to see the same actors and actresses again ~ I am so glad they have kept the same people through all of the movies so far. Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes play Lucy and Edmund, Ben Barnes returns as Caspian, Tilda Swinton as the White Witch, and Anna Popplewell and William Moseley make short appearances again as Susan and Peter. They even still had the same actor do the voice of Reepicheep, and of course, the great Liam Neeson as Aslan. The new addition was Will Poulter as Eustace, who did a good job of his role. Eustace is an annoying little twerp in the book, and came across so in the movie just as much. Thankfully by the end he redeems himself and makes you actually like him. If they make another Narnia movie, it will be Eustace who will be the main character, so it's good that he grows on you!


Anyway, overall, it's another great movie in the Narnia series. Like the others, it doesn't disguise the Christian parallels ~ they're so obvious, which is really neat to see. I'm glad they didn't try to take that aspect out of these movies. 


Here's a few more pictures from the film, and the trailer...

Lucy with some dufflepuds

Reading the book of incantations

Eustace the dragon and Reepicheep

Lucy, Caspian and Edmund with Liliandil (the star)

Aslan with Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, Reepicheep and Eustace

 Edmund, Lucy and Eustace leave Narnia

Lost in Austen

This is my recommended movie of the week ~ Lost in Austen. In a nutshell, the movie is about a present day girl (Amanda Price)--an ardent Austen/Pride & Prejudice fan--who ends up swapping places with the apparently not-so-fictional Elizabeth Bennet. Of course, Amanda knows exactly who everyone is and what should happen with them all, but things don't quite go as they ought to, and Amanda feels that it's up to her to fix things and get the story back on track.
If you know the story of Pride & Prejudice well, this movie will be hilarious to you, as it's full of inside jokes about the book and its characters. All of the actors are great. In fact, if they used this cast to do the real Pride & Prejudice, it would be perfect.

Amanda Price (aka, the substitute Elizabeth Bennet) is played by Jemima Rooper, and the real Elizabeth Bennet is played by Gemma Arterton. Mr. Darcy is played by Elliot Cowan, and Bingley is played by Tom Mison.

This is one of the funniest parts of the movie ~ 

"I am having a bit of a strange post-modern moment here" (Amanda)

The Bennet sisters ~

Jane, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia

Darcy, Caroline Bingley, and Charles Bingley

Mr. Wickham, Lydia Bennet, Kitty Bennet, Jane Bennet, Amanda Price, Mary Bennet, Mrs. Bennet

This movie is clean, funny, and just all-around enjoyable. I love the changes they made to the story... how things go wrong, for Amanda to try to fix (like Jane marrying Mr. Collins); but mostly I like the change they made with Wickham. We all know the story of what Wickham did to Georgiana and how he wronged her and Darcy, etc. But in this version they completely change that, and make it so Wickham comes across as a "bad" character, but is quite the opposite. He's actually one of my favourite characters in the whole movie ~ especially when he purposely causes trouble (ie: telling everyone that Amanda's father was a notorious fish-monger), and proves to be the most helpful and dedicated friend to Amanda at times when she needs his help ("Everyone you love, Miss Price, will one day prise your fingers from the raft and watch you drown. Everyone, Miss Price, except me.")

This following clip is one of my favourite parts of the whole movie... 

And then Charles' comment after:
"Brava, Miss Price! And whenever life is getting me down, I shall be sure to go downtown."

Anyway, that's my recommendation today. If you get a chance to watch this movie someday, I hope you enjoy it and get a good laugh from it! 

Jane Eyre

I owe a great big thanks to Ruth Ann for bringing this to my attention! I am super excited to see that there is a brand new version of Jane Eyre that was made, and is in theaters now! Though, unfortunately it's not in any theaters around here ~ the closest is in either Mississauga or Toronto. But I'm still excited nonetheless! It'll give me something to look forward to when it comes out on DVD.  :)

Here's some information about the movie:

Jane is played by Mia Wasikowska (she was Alice, in the new Alice in Wonderland), and so far, based on several reviews, it seems like she's the best Jane yet. It'll be interesting because she's much younger than any other actresses who have played Jane (~ and that was actually the director's choice... he wanted an actress approximately the same age as Jane was in the book).
Mr. Rochester is played by Michael Fassbender ~ someone I know nothing about! But he looks like a good Mr. Rochester, and again, reviews seem to say only great things about him.
Also in the cast is Judi Dench (as Mrs. Fairfax), Sallie Hawkins (an actress I know because she played the lead in my favourite version of Persuasion), Jamie Bell (the boy who played Billy Elliot!), and Tamzin Merchant (the girl who played Georgiana Darcy in the newest version of Pride & Prejudice). Looks pretty good!

Here is the main trailer for it. It definitely looks pretty dark... again, something the director was aiming for. She said she was trying to capture the spookiness that plagues the entire story, because in other adaptations they don't show as much of that side of it (but rather focus more on making it a romantic period movie). Anyway, you can see for yourself in the trailer:

And one more thing to note, that I'm particularly looking forward to, is that Dario Marianelli did the soundtrack for it (he did the newest Pride & Prejudice soundtrack). Should be great!

New Emma

I just discovered, by chance the other day, that there was a new version of Jane Austen's Emma made by the BBC. I love it when the BBC does these classic movies because they really go by the book. So I was pretty excited just knowing there was a new Austen movie out; and then was even more excited when I saw the cast! There's so many great actors/actresses in this one. First there's Romola Garai, who plays Emma (and she's pretty much exactly what I always pictured Emma to look like); Michael Gambon plays Emma's father (what a great character!!); and best of all, Mr. Knightly is played by Jonny Lee Miller (who played my favourite character in Mansfield Park - Edmund Bertram).

Emma & Mr. Knightly

This version of Emma is approximately 4 hours long and comes in 4 parts. You can see some clips and read character bios on the BBC site for it here.
It's kind of funny how many versions there are of all of Jane Austen's books. Here's what's all out there:
(note: I've put stars next to my favourites!)

PRIDE & PREJUDICE:
~ "Big Screen" version, with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier (1940)

~ BBC version, with no one I know (1980)

~ BBC version, with Colin Firth (1995) ***

~ "Big Screen" version, with Kiera Knightly and Matthew MacFadyen (2005) ***

PERSUASION:
~ BBC version, with no one I know (1960)
~ BBC version, with no one I know (1971)
~ "Big Screen" version, with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root (1995)
~ ITV version, with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones (2007) ***

EMMA:

~ "Big Screen" version, with Gwenyth Paltrow (1996) ***

~ ITV version, with Kate Beckinsale (1996)

~ BBC version, with Romola Garai (2009) ***

SENSE & SENSIBILITY:

~ BBC version, with no one I know (1981)

~ "Big Screen" version, with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson (1995) ***

~ BBC version, with no one I know (2008)

MANSFIELD PARK:
~ BBC version, with no one I know (1983)
~ "Big Screen" version, with Jonny Lee Miller and Frances O'Connor (1999) ***
~ ITV version, with Billie Piper (2007) ***


NORTHANGER ABBEY:
~ BBC version, with no one I know (1986)
~ ITV version, with no one I know (2007) ***

Suffice it to say, there's lots!! I guess people just can't get enough of them!