Pride and Prejudice

For some reason we had a Jane Austen week recently, without really planning it. We saw The Jane Austen Book Club, which we liked, and Austenland, which we didn’t. Then this shows up on TCM, and somehow I’d never seen any of the approximately forty versions and variations of the book that have been made over the years. This is one of the best known and most critically acclaimed, with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier in the leads. And, speaking as a man who usually likes “chick flicks,” I have to say it left me … not cold, but lukewarm at best. Everyone here does great work, including all the wonderful MGM character actors like Edna May Oliver and Edmund Gwenn, and a supporting role from Maureen O’Sullivan. Aldous Huxley co-wrote the screenplay. I guess I just never warmed to the cold Mr. Darcy, and kept thinking that Elizabeth could do better. I had the same reaction to Wuthering Heights. Is it something in Olivier’s performances? I don’t think so. I suspect I just don’t much care for Regency or early Victorian romances.