Getting Stuck In The Pages Of Jane Austen Is Never A Bad Idea
One thing that I am loving about Loveuary on The Hallmark Channel is that we’re getting exposed to books. While most of us would think that everyone has read Jane Austen, the truth is – not everyone has. Yet, Austen is one of the classics and someone that everyone should be reading.
The other thing that I am loving? Hallmark bringing the tales of Austen to life with a modern day twist. An American In Austen tells the story of a librarian who thinks that no man can live up to Mr. Darcy gets an unexpected chance to find out if that’s true, when she wakes up inside of her favorite novel, Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice.”
I think that a lot of us can relate to thinking that we want to find our own Mr. Darcy. It’s a testament to the power of Pride and Prejudice, as well as Jane Austens writing. Mr. Darcy is the ultimate bad boy, who loves with such intensity that you know that you’d be taken care of for the rest of your life.
But, he’s also fictional. It doesn’t stop Harriett from wanting to compare everyone to Mr. Darcy and thinking that should be what she is feeling. When she’s not sure what she’s feeling and she’s proposed to by her boyfriend Ethan, because of this whole Mr. Darcy comparison, replies with, “Maybe.”
Now, that has to be one of the worst replies ever. The indifference. Maybe? I don’t even know what to say right there. But when Eliza wishes that she had her own Mr. Darcy, and then finds herself having time traveled to the past…
I had to admit I laughed.
I laughed because it was endearing and that’s because Eliza Bennett. She had the seriousness and the comedic timing. She’s able to make your see the fun and the funny. She’s got a gift for comedy and it’s definitely fun to watch.
Bennett brings her character of Harriett to life with such power that you find yourself rooting for her. Even as she’s destroying the story of Pride and Prejudice, you don’t mind, because she’s just that good at all the things that she’s doing. From her want to make everything okay to her indifference at times to her annoyance at times, Harriett is a character that you can’t help but like.
Hell, you can’t help but love her.
So it’s no surprise that Mr. Darcy falls for her and asks for her hand in marriage.
As the story of Pride and Prejudice continues to unravel, Harriett is left with getting it back on track. She’s to guide her cousins and make them take their life in their own hands. And maybe that’s where this movie shines – it’s about the way that women can empower each other, the way that they shouldn’t have to settle, and the way that their strength is the relationship that they have with themselves.
Mr. Darcy doesn’t take center stage here, even though in someways he’s meant to. Instead what we see is Mr. Darcy being a balance between what is and what could be. He’s a good man, one who doesn’t know how to deal with emotion, but a good man none the less. He’s there for Harriett, but it’s his help with Lizzie that makes us see him as not the villain of his own story.
Maybe he’s the catalyst to someone elses.
As the story of Pride and Prejudice gets back on track, Harriett just wants to go home. She wants to take back her maybe and replace it with a definitely. She has grown to realize how much Ethan means to her and maybe what she needed was not a Mr. Darcy in real life. What she needed had been there all along.
There is not a character in this story that doesn’t shine and make you want to reread the book. Jane Austen had a story and an answer for everything, even if we the reader may not see it all the time. The journey to the past – one of being trapped in a story felt like a metaphor for the world being trapped in a book. Sometimes we look down so much, we forget to see the world around us.
We forget to feel the world around us.
While Catherine Hannay and Nell Barlow are exceptional in the movie, i’ll die on the hill that this is Eliza Bennett’s film. While the ensemble is fantastic, the character of Harriett is what ties everyone together. Eliza Bennett does that with her comedy, the mixture of modern day and the days of the past, and the realizations of what life is all about.
This movie offered us an escape and for that, can anyone truly be angry? Nope. We’ll embrace it.