Movies

What an excellent film! Superb performances, spellbinding dialogue, and beautiful sets and props led to an enchanting 2 hours of lost love and hope. I loved the stiffly formal, wonderfully polite, yet stifling mores these English were forced to endure. In many cases their lives were not their own to live; in many, their lives were lived under the gun of the almighty buck. They carried right on, however, with their characteristically stiff English upper lip, come what may. Great film with a knockout ending.

This is one of the best of the recent Jane Austen films, from one of her weaker books. Emma Thompson has done a fine job of the script, not slavishly remaining faithful to the book but not abandoning it either.The cast are uniformally excellent. I especially liked Kate Winslet's Marianne and Alan Rickman's Brandon. Emma Thompson's performance is almost good enough to make you forget that she is far to old for the part. The supporting cast are all excellent.Ang Lee's direction shows the same skill that it did in the excellent Eat Drink Man Woman and the scenery and costumes are beautiful (perhaps too beautiful).This is more romantic and less comic than say Emma, and Thompson's script wisely stays away from the kind of set-piece gags seen in the recent film of Emma. All in all, this is excellent.

I am not a fan of Jane Austen novels. And, after I wrote them and I saw adaptations of them, I am far to become one. But this version... . Obvious, it is different. In profound good sense. For the great performances. For the wise script. For a perfect director who knows the subtle art of storytelling. Short, a superb film. And the brilliant Emma Thompson working fine to her character and her story.