‘Paging Mr. Darcy’ Review: How Not To Be A Snob And A Scholar In Two Hours

Growing up, this writer always had a passion for reading. I thought that there was nothing more beautiful than words – the way that they could be woven together to tell a story that would make you feel something. It didn’t matter if it was pain or love. What mattered to me was that words would give me hope. They would transport me to another world.

Some of the most beautiful words in the world came from the mind of Jane Austen. She had this way of making you smile, laugh, angry, and so much more. So when Hallmark announced their Loveuary programming, I couldn’t help but be both excited and scared.

You see, not everyone does Austen justice.

But this movie, it wasn’t an adaptation. It was a movie that was inspired by Austen and the love of her books. Paging Mr. Darcy was easy to love and become entranced with.

And the reason that it was? Well that’s all about Will Kemp. But we’ll get there.

Eloise Cavendish (Mallory Jansen) is a Jane Austen scholar, who seems to have lost any idea of what fun is. She’s so devoted to her work that she doesn’t really think about anything but work. She’s adverse to anyone who she doesn’t feel is on her level, but in the process of that has isolated herself. She’s forgotten to live and spends her life existing inside the pages of a book.

When Eloise is asked to be the guest of honor at a Jane Austen convention, she jumps at the opportunity, but for reasons that are somewhat selfish. She wants a job at Princeton and the Professor that is doing the hiring is at the convention. So she places a lot of pressure on herself.

However, when she’s picked up at the airport by her own Mr. Darcy, Sam Lee (Will Kemp), she’s completely put off. She looks down on him because he’s dressed up as Mr. Darcy. Look, we would like to be able to say that we’re not judging that, but we are. We are because you go to anything with the word “convention” in the name, you should expect people to be in costume.

Maybe it’s why Eloise bugged me a bit, because she seemed to look down on everyone that was in costume. She seemed to act like they were beneath her, but I wondered if she got while she devoted herself to the scholarly part of Jane Austen, the women around her devoted themselves to the part of Austen that made them fall in love. Yes, I know that for Eloise it was a matter of protecting her heart and childhood trauma and I am not knocking that. She has to heal in her own time.

And well, healing f**king hurts sometimes.

The push and pull between Sam and Eloise is absolutely cute, but that’s mostly because of Will Kemp. Jansen is great, but she’s so convincing as the Eloise that is spastic that you don’t really find yourself looking past that. What you see instead is that you’ve got this man with an accent that is doing everything to bring her out of her shell.

Part of me though thinks that Eloise thrives in chaos and the idea that the only way to survive is to focus on Austen. Yet, as a person who loves Austen, part of me thinks that she’s got Austen all wrong. She doesn’t believe that Austen is a romance writer, but personally, I can’t imagine saying that Austen is anything but a romance writer. She’s written books that have shaped generations idea of what love is and isn’t.

We know that watching the movie – there will be growth in Eloise’s heart and it’s great to see happen. The thing is though, by the time that it does happen, Eloise has put you off so much though that you can’t help but wish that you saw consistency in her earlier.

While we do get a happy ending, overall it felt like it should have been more focused on Eloise and Sam, versus other peoples happiness. Fully aware that it sounds selfish to say that, but it just felt like too many B storylines happening and it was distracting.

The best thing about this movie though was that by the end, you could believe that Eloise may have seen Austen for what she is (partially) – a romance writer.

OTHER THOUGHTS

The opening on the plane ride was funny to a point, but also turned the viewer off to who Eloise is. It kinda just made it – from the beginning – seem as though she was too much of a snob.
Sam in his Darcy costume was too cute

Loved that Sam was the nephew of the Professor that Eloise was trying to impress, especially Eloise finding that out after she was mean to him
Sam being able to admit that she hurt his feelings. I loved that, because a lot of men would never
Really wasn’t invested in the storyline with Eloise’s sister. I didn’t feel it added anything to the story, instead took away from it.

Sam is charming, but how charming the portrayed him to be was a lot. He’s not THAT charming that every woman would swoon at his feet.
Sam’s protectiveness of his aunt is adorable. It’s endearing
Eloise really really really just needs to take a chill pill