I just finished Lost in Austen. I’m a weirdo. I like to watch period pieces while I workout on the elliptical in the evenings. I love Jane Austen’s novels, but I also love all of the adaptations that have been made from her stories. Serious to down right silly, I find myself compelled to check them out. In fact, Clueless and Bridget Jones’s Diary are two of my favorite movies of all time, and I don’t know any woman who doesn’t swoon at the site of Colin Firth climbing out of that pond soaked to the skin.
Lost in Austen is simply good fun. It’s full of lovely British actors, wearing pretty clothes, in romantic settings. It’s also peppered with enough anachronisms and absurd liberties to the storyline to make Jane Austen roll over in her grave. Some will probably find this plot tampering offensive, but honestly I had a good laugh when Caroline Bingley came onto the modern day interloper Amanda Price and declared her “Sapphic love.”
Speaking of the main character, Amanda Price is actually portrayed by Jemima Rooper whom you might remember from the BBC program Hex. She played the angsty teen ghost Thelma Bates. Coincidentally, Jemima’s Hex co-star from season one, Christina Cole, is the condescending Caroline Bingley.
The film opens in present day London. Amanda Price is obsessed with Pride and Prejudice and finds her current boyfriend desperately lacking in comparison to Mr. Darcy. One evening, she hears a noise in her bathroom and discovers that Elizabeth Bennet has tumbled out of a crawl space and into her world. Of course they agree to switch lifestyles for a bit. Elizabeth stays behind in Amanda’s apartment while Amanda ventures into Elizabeth’s home.
You can imagine the stir Amanda’s prescence creates and she soon has the household aflutter with her odd behaviors. Amanda’s antics unfortunately begin to unravel the plot of the book in disasterous ways and she must struggle to right the story with the aid of an unlikely ally, Lieutenant Wickham. Surprised? I told you there were crazy twists.
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I adored HEX so this should be interesting…
I will totally check this out. I have seen just about everything Jane Austen, you and I are totally a like in that. Did you ever see the Bollywood version of Pride and Prejudice, hilarious!
Where did you find this to watch it? I can’t find on Netflix… is it on cable?
That was my question, too. I’ve been hearing about this show…but the ITV video doesn’t seem to work outside the UK.
I’m going to have to watch this! And I totally agree you’d have to be dead not to appreciate the Colin Firth – pond scene 🙂
I’ve never heard of this movie. It sounds great! Like you I’m a fan of anything Austen…old, new, reworked…it’s all fun! Will definitely check this one out.
I’m not normally a fan of the “original Austen” but love all the new movie adaptations. Do I need to know the original stories/characters to appreciate and enjoy the movie?
OK so this post was quite some time back, but if you are an Austen fan then you should check out Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next (book) series. Lots of fun!