Pride & Prejudice, 2005

Pride & Prejudice, 2005
Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench


Stage: Home TV selection, Wednesday night after a hard working day


Pride & Prejudice in short: The story is based on Jane Austen's novel about five sisters - Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet - in Georgian England. Their lives are turned upside down when a wealthy young man (Mr. Bingley) and his best friend (Mr. Darcy) arrive in their neighborhood.


Preps: Well, I have seen this at least twice already, the first time at the movies and I loved it. I love the novel and wanted to see the movie badly. Now I am wasted because of a tiring day and it is a good news this is on TV.


Reality: It is one thing to dream away with the novel, but to see Darcy and Elizabeth for real on screen.. dare I say in the shape of beautiful Keira Knightley. I love to see her in cast because I am dazzled again and again by this woman's beauty. I absolutely adore the way she is spelling words, her accents in various movies. She doesn't let me down in Pride and Prejudice. I believe this is the piece of character that fits her like a glow. A drifted away dreamer, a pigeon among predators, an angel with brains between sheep. I believe the novel is so carefully written and so notorious that the director couldn't drift away from the reality of the book even if he wanted to. I am dearly grateful for all the copycat pages the scriptwriter did, because in this way you are dragged into the same feeling you had when you read the book. Especially if you were as fond of it as I was.
The setting is exquisite. The castles take my breath away. The devastation in souls of young women that only think of marriage and how they will settle somewhere and not be hungry for the rest of their lives.. without affection, definitely in most cases without love, arranged marriages.. they gave me shivers as I watched them. The poorness of the souls Elizabeth is surrounded is very profoundly acted. Judi Dench as the perfect nobless, aunt of Darcy, is brilliant. As well as Donald Sutherland, as her father. Being drifted away from the one you love even though you don't know yet you love him.. excellent energy among the main actors and the main protagonists.
I need to also compliment the wardrobe, because I am stunned by dresses, hats, ribbons.. the fashion selected by top crew flew me right into this time. Also all the selected words. It was as though we were reading poetry. I am still under impression and I feel in love. So should you, when you see this piece. Yearning for love shouldn't be such a pain as she feels. Even though she gets in the end her Hollywood story. It wasn't meant for anyone in that time.


My personal rating: 8,0 (a truly fine romantic drama/historical insight into the selection of given moments to dames way back in history. And love seeking, in the most poetic way. Proposal like you haven't seen in a long run. .. worth seeing and dreaming away).


Pride & Prejudice on IMDB

Disclosure, 1994

Disclosure, 1994
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland



Stage: Home theatre



Disclosure in short: With his company about to merge, a happily married and successful computer expert is expecting a promotion. Instead the job goes to a woman from another plant with whom he had an affair in his bachelor days. His new boss, not only dangerously sexy but equally dangerously ambitious, has climbed the corporate ladder by exerting undue influence on the CEO. She apparently tries to pick up where they left off but he just about manages to resist. This liaison is soon revealed to be part of her master plan to consolidate power and use Tom as a scapegoat to cover her technical misdeeds. As his position at work comes under increasing pressure he decides to file charges of sexual harassment. This is the last thing the company needs.


Preps: I can watch this on an very awqward evening, as I am thinking about someone getting on your ass over something you weren't a part of. So it seems a nice suggestion someone from TV has made on my behalf.



Reality: This is an excellent piece on getting hit by your own management and your own boss. It is amazing, how (for a change) a guy gets swollen by system and his own weaknesses. A fine learning point for anyone that gets involved with this kind of deal and needs to know what is he/she fighting against. Douglas here is the swollen man by a woman as a superior. To get weak is one thing, to abuse power, something completely else. Defined by a brilliant Crichton script, the movie has its flow, its protagonists and main message - screw or get screwed. Or put it another way - if get screwed, fight back. Don't be a small ant, be the ant with the attitude. Even though Douglas fights, he simultanously loses the game by losing things he feels dear about. Regardless of the outcome of the dispute he's having with the company, he's unemployable, man with a mark, man that will always wear a shadow, and most important, this despute importantly reflects in his personal life.

How far can the company go to cover up for something and find a guilty person among those that don't know they represent collateral damage? And how many people really have time, energy and money to back it up? Put it on the other side of coin - what is worth more, honor or normal life? And, is the life really normal, if you swallow something like that? A very old and still fresh question, fits perfectly into nowaday environment in business.

My personal rate: 8,0 (solid, straight piece. Will keep you to your knees and with mouth open until its end).


Disclosure on IMDB