Fancy That!

I was so excited to see this movie on PPV! Historical fiction has always been a favorite of mine. With their layers upon layers of elegant silky dresses and hair up in curls embellished with tiaras and flowers, the women of the 1800's are mesmerizing. Jane is a true artist playing the piano in the early morning when she's happy after composing a few pages of witty paragraphs. Artists without jobs have no concept of time, and dawn is a perfect quiet time for writing. When she meets Tom, their chemistry is apparent as they joust and fight with such grammatically descriptive vocabulary. I almost needed to pause the screen and get out my dictionary. Jane can not seem to settle on the idea of living in the most spacious mansion of a property with a husband (Mr. Wisley)of privilege whose personality of a cardboard box. He barely even talks, and is a chicken when it comes to playing ball with the guys. Jane is the one who knocks the ball out of the park in every sense of the word. This is the era where women with a brain aren't looked upon too fairly. I guess they are supposed to be submissive and sit around sewing lace all day. Jane's family is on the bottom of the social ladder, and their only hope is for one of the girls to marry into a rich estate. Otherwise, Jane's mother can expect to be doing laundry for the rest of her life. Jane falls for Tom, and is cautiously happy in going with him to London to meet his family. Tom's uncle despises Jane's wit and irony so much he forbids the marriage. Jane realizes later that Tom relies entirely on his uncle's allowance to send money back to his brothers and sisters. She knows the two would give up everything to be together and eventually resent the other.

Watching this movie was as satisfying as a juicy steak - while probably not as fattening. I would watch it with a group and not be embarrassed by the language or nudity or sex scenes (there isn't any). It is a prequel to Sense and Sensibility written by Jane Austen. If you like historical fiction from this period, some other movies I like are:

Little Women - with Wenona Ryder
Ever After - Drew Barrymore
The Count of Monte Cristo - James Caviezel
First Knight - Richard Gere/ Julia Ormond
Vanity Fair - Reese Witherspoon
Pirates of the Caribbean - Johnny Depp