I Intend To Keep Her

Last spring, Miss Nemesis posted this video:

I sent it to my mom who shared it with my sister and my aunt (who also has three daughters who like these kinds of movies) and then we all scoped out the comprehensive list of movies included in the video (the list is not entirely accurate in regards to which movies show up in the YouTube video, but it’s close enough). There were all sorts of vows about watching all these movies, but I don’t know whether any of us actually did (I did not).

Then we watched North and South last week. It was so delightful in every way, that I returned to the list and looked most of them up on my library website, recognizing that I needed more movies like this in my life. Jason Bourne, what are you compared to a refused proposal in an English parlor? Imagine my delight when I discovered that my library owned a copy of the new Jane Eyre. I placed a request and was amazed when, a mere three days later, the library emailed to inform me that the movie was waiting for me to come pick it up.

Now, I love Jane Eyre. My mom and I read it together when I was a junior in high school (I remember what year it was because I colored for my anatomy class while she read to me – what a total waste of time that coloring was) and I loved it (the book, not the coloring). In London, I went with Bart’s mom and several other girls to see a stage version of it which was quite lovely (although a tiny bit weird). In York, my sister bought a hardbound copy of the book at a delightful little three story bookstore (why I didn’t buy one too, I’ll never know).

On Wednesday evening, we took the movie over to Ralphie and Brian’s house and watched the first disc (the movie is four hours long) and then finished it on our own the next night. I may have cried.

There are not enough gushing words in the English language for me to tell you how fantastic this movie is. It may be my favorite Regency movie of all time (forgive me, Pride and Prejudice). I enjoyed every single moment of it. It was one of those perfect movies where I couldn’t decide who I liked better – the female lead or the male lead. The casting was superb and the acting was even better. I will probably go back and watch it several more times before it’s due back to the library (why, I might even do some ironing for the first time in ages, just to have an excuse to watch it again).

If you like Pride and Prejudice, you should run out this very moment and do whatever is necessary to get your hands on this movie (perhaps even spend precious, precious money). If you don’t know if you like Pride and Prejudice because you’ve never seen any version of it, well, we may need to reevaluate our relationship.

And, I don’t know who in my local library has an affinity for these kinds of movies, but I love that they are so readily available, and I laugh a little to myself when I look them up on the Provo library website only to discover that they have 5 copies, all of which are checked out, with a backlog of 27 requests.

And yes, sometime I will write about something besides food, books, and movies. But today is not that day.