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tyme4t · 27-06-2010, 11:53 PM

(27-06-2010 08:12 PM)Nitrus Wrote: You have to watch Death at a Funeral, MM plays a humorous role very well and it's a genuinely funny movie anyway, the British version at least. (Before hollywood ripped it off and ruined it.)

Completely agree Nitrus! The outtakes alone are worth the price of admission or rental! Big Grin

I have watched it several times and I laugh out loud each time - love seeing MM in a lighter role - although I CANNOT wait for "The Pillars of The Earth" - loved the book and now MM as Prior Philip!!

Here's the latest trailer.... Smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU3bUJroGNg

Tea Lady · 08-07-2010, 08:55 PM

I have just got round to watching Pride and Prejudice with MM. I have not read the book and have only seen this adaptation on screen. While I enjoyed it, I was unsure of MM's portrayal of Mr Darcy and wondered if the character was that miserable looking and seemingly indifferent in the book? I could not quite believe the chemistry that was supposed to be there between him and Liz. Maybe it was supposed to be like that and I really need to read the book to understand *adds to the pile*

MM just seemed to look very unhappy throughout even when he had won the heart of Liz.

**Nia M** · 08-07-2010, 11:03 PM

He's certainly supposed to appear very haughty and rather unsociable at the beginning, and I seem to remember that in the book Elizabeth eventually comes to understand that there is a reason for that, although I can't for the life of me remember what! Tongue

**A Cousin** · 09-07-2010, 01:55 AM

I'll jump in here. I've been a Jane Austen fan for much longer than I have been a Spooks fan. I am no expert, but I have been discussing it at another forum for years. Hopefully I can be much more succinct than I am about Spooks!

The book is written from Elizabeth's POV so you don't get to see any of Darcy's inner life until the very end. The reader makes the journey of discovery re: Darcy with Lizzy. Throughout Darcy is seemingly haughty, proud, judgemental, disdainful, conceited, controlling, etc. Only at the very end, after Lizzy sees his true nature and accepts him, does Jane Austen allow the reader to hear what he has to say. He sums it all up by saying that he had been a proud man all his life; that he was given good principles but was left to follow them in pride and conceit.

Darcy is, BTW, very similar to Harry in that he is a very powerful man with a great deal of responsibility on his shoulders who sublimates himself for others a lot, but underneath it is a man of fierce integrity and moral fiber who cares deeply for the people in his charge.

The big question that anyone adapting P&P has to answer is how much of Darcy's inner life to show the audience as it is happening. In the MM adaptation, they chose to keep it pretty true to the structure of the book, which I liked. Another big question is, is Darcy a conceited jerk or is he simply shy. MM chose to interpret Darcy as shy, which I strongly disagree with. And finally, I think they made a casting mistake with Kiera Knightley. I generally like her as an actress but she was too much a star, too much of a marketing coup. This reflected in MM and KN's on screen chemistry which I agree was lacking. He was trying. She was posing.

Nope. Not much more succinct. Sorry.... Blush

Tea Lady · 09-07-2010, 08:52 AM

Wow, thank you A Cousin for that explanation. It all makes a little more sense now in that the book was written from Liz's POV. I would agree that acting opposite KN may have been difficult. I think the film was made in 2005 and must have been just after MM left Spooks. One of his first post Spooks projects perhaps?

**JHyde** · (This post was last modified: 09-07-2010 09:10 AM by JHyde.)

The book's worth reading, Tea Lady. I went through my Austen phase in my teenage years and rarely re-visit them these days, but still have great affection for them. All her books are worth reading and RPJ is in an adaptation of Persuasion that was done that is also great.

I still think the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle adaptation has never been bettered. There's maybe one or two small things missing from it, but it's pretty damn good.

The thing I do like about the MM version is the visceral look they have for a lot of locations. There's no dodging the fact that Austen and her people lived in a dirty world and that messiness translates really well in this adaptation. It's also nice to see Carey Mulligan in her first film role.

The hilarious thing about it is MM's scene in the rain, which is essentially the equivalent of the scene Colin Firth does in the mini series after his dip in the pond.

I'm not sure about Darcy and Harry though. If anything, I actually think Lizzy and Harry share one of the same flaws, they're both a bit too quick to judge!

MM has lots of stuff out in the next 12 months that looks really promising. I just mentioned over on the status thread that his cameo role in A2A was one of the better things he's done since Spooks and I'd actually like to see him do a bit more comedy. The film he did with Keeley a couple of years back was also pretty good, Death at a Funeral.

tyme4t · 09-07-2010, 09:38 AM

I am looking forward to "The Pillars of The Earth" with MM as Prior Philip.
I read the book once I heard of the mini-series and that MM was going to be in it - the book was great and it'll be interesting to see how close it stays true to the book. I tend to have low expectations on films based on books because I know there will be changes...but author Ken Follett seems to be quite pleased with the production.

@Jhyde - I just watched the A2A ep with MM - I love that ep! MM is so good as Gil Hollis and well what can you say about the hair and the moustache! hehehe

btw...love MM as Darcy! Wink

**JHyde** · 09-07-2010, 09:41 AM

From the extras on the season 1 DVDs, the creators said that MM asked to do the brummy accent and the track suit and everything else. That was all him, apart from the script. I love that episode - it starts out as farce and winds up in tragedy.

**Kazters** · 09-07-2010, 09:49 AM

the hair was his idea to! (as was using keeleys little boy as his son in the ep) haha i love him in ashes

**A Cousin** · 09-07-2010, 01:14 PM

(09-07-2010 08:52 AM)Tea Lady Wrote: Wow, thank you A Cousin for that explanation. It all makes a little more sense now in that the book was written from Liz's POV. I would agree that acting opposite KN may have been difficult. I think the film was made in 2005 and must have been just after MM left Spooks. One of his first post Spooks projects perhaps?

Yup, it was the very next thing he did after Spooks. As well as the first thing he did on an international level. And, incidentally, one of the things that led me to Spooks. Smile

When the discussion of casting this adaptation of P&P was going on in the JA forum I am part of, the Brits knew who he was b/c of Spooks and the Yanks didn't. The Brits were all behind his casting as Darcy. He was a good casting choice. Handsome, but not too handsome. A stoic actor but with a very active emotional under-current. Overall, a successful Darcy. I just didn't like that they chose to make Darcy shy. And his walking out of the mist in that last scene is just, well, squee worthy but not at all in the book.

I liked the overall look and feel of the movie, but it moved too fast for me. JA in two hours is always difficult. The book is very pastoral and there is a lot of description and exposition. There isn't a whole lot of action involved and movies/TV are an active medium. I think MM's Darcy, through no fault of his own, suffered a bit b/c of that.