Confession time. I turned Miss Austen Regrets off about halfway through and watched the very interesting end of the Super Bowl instead.
I honestly tried to watch this, but it simply did not capture my attention. I didn’t like the actresses playing the main characters, didn’t like the dialog, didn’t care for the camera work, etc. It did nothing for me.
However, the music was gorgeous as was the scenery.
I have this thing about taking the lives of real people and running wild with imagining what they said and did and thought. I dislike it immensely in sermons about people in the Bible and I disliked it here. Someday when I’m dead and can’t speak for myself, I wouldn’t want someone making a movie about my life and making all kinds of guesses about how I felt about things or the conversations I had with people. While it is regrettable that most of Jane’s correspondence and diaries were burned shortly after her death, I just don’t think people should take great liberties in telling her story. It bothered me. But maybe that is just me.
So what did you think? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts!
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LOL! I loved it. It was my favorite one so far. It was sad, but had so much good stuff in it. I like sadder stories, especially if they are based on truth.
I liked the actress, too.
Football? Eeee. (I live in the heart of Patriot’s fan land, too.) That sport is way too primitive for me.
If they hadn’t had the disclaimer in the beginning that her letters were burned and they don’t really know much, I would have hated it. I can take a “This is our imaginary take on it” attitude better than a “This is how it really happened” projection when it’s mostly made-up. Still, if it were me, I would rather not have someone guessing about my thoughts and feelings and making a book or movie about them.
I didn’t really care for the actress portraying Jane, either.
It didn’t really say why Cassandra burned Jane’s letters. Any idea why she did?
I was wondering what happened with her niece. Did she end up marrying that annoying parson?
I thought it was very disjointed, myself. And they made Jane mean.
Fannie did not end up with the first man-he married someone else. She ended up marrying a widower with 6 children.
I fell asleep about 45 minutes in. It just didn’t catch my attention.
I did appreciate the disclaimer at the beginning, however, about the letters, etc.
For the most part my girls and I enjoyed it. However, the scenes with the older women making comments on marriage (to the tune of “even if you marry for love, eventually you’ll fall out of love and all you’ll have left is your children) and of having children (“I wonder how many she’ll have- she’ll we worn out by thirty) bothered me. I realize that not everyone has a happy marriage, but I thought the overall tone was so “marriage is a necessary evil- how much better to be single”. Maybe they were just trying to emphasize why Jane Austen made the choices she did in life.
But, after watching the last hour of the superbowl with my husband, it was nice to end the evening with something more girly :).
Thank you, abrianna, for clarifying who Fanny married. We never did figure it out for certain. We all wanted her to marry the doctor.
LOl, and you’re welcome, Windswept Plains. That’s what I meant about the gilm being disjointed.
And I also agree about all the negative marriage and children comments.
I found it disappointing. I imagined that they would have made it more historical, flashing back, etc. to make it more accurate. I turned it off within 30 mintues and picked up a Jan Karon book instead! I immediately felt lighthearted and joyous. If anyone here has no idea who Jan Karon is, look her up at your local library – I promise, you will be glad you read her.
I wasn’t a big fan of the portrayal of Jane. It wasn’t totally in harmony with that portrayed in a biography I just read (which is based on letters and other primary sources). My husband and I were irritated by the actress playing Fanny. I do recommend the book for serious Jane Austen fans (and English majors…), Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence.
I am reading the book “Becoming Jane Austen” (not the movie-version, but what the movie was taken from). I felt like the movie followed it fairly well and in reading it I feel it is well documented and researched. One point that should be understood is that Jane Austen did not have one single good marriage in her life, family or otherwise, to model her characters’, or her own, views upon. Cassandra’s deepest love died trying to provide enough for her father to approve of him, and Jane’s true love mislead her and abandonned her! Yes, she was a fabulous author of make believe love, but certainly you can see why her characters would portray such a hostility toward “marriage”. Isn’t that sad?! Something so entirely beautiful that she completely missed in life!