I love getting obsessed with a book. My favorite is to read the book, then watch all (or a lot of) the movies to the book. I've been doing this lately with Jane Eyre and Emma. Here are my thoughts:
Emma (the book)
I actually read this a while ago, but oh I love this book. I am such a Jane Austen fan anyway, but this one really shows Jane Austen's sense of humor. There are so many parts I just laugh out loud. I love getting all the details the movie leaves out. Emma is a great character and I love her story.
Emma (the one with Gwyneth)This one to me is such a classic. I think Gwyneth really gets Emma's character. This movie really has fun with the humor in the book. The chemistry between Emma and Mr. Knightley are great too, I just love this Mr. Knightley. This is one movie I own (which is saying a lot considering we have 15-20 movies total--including kid's movies) I can watch it again and again. It is only 2 hours along (give or take) so it does skip stuff in the book, but it stays pretty true for the length.
Emma (the one with Kate Beckinsale) I read reviews on this, I had never seen it until recently and they were great reviews. I wasn't that impressed though. I thought Kate did a good job acting Emma's part, but the Mr. Knightley was very unimpressive to me. There didn't seem to be much interaction between Emma and Mr. Knightley to me. The movie seemed to focus too much on small details and not enough on interactions and character development. Overall, I wasn't that impressed and definitely won't buy this one.
Emma 2009 Oh I love this one so much. My little sister and I discovered it this year on Valentines Day. (fitting :) ) I love the characters, I love all 5 hours (give or take) of it. I love the Emma, I love the Mr. Knightley and their chemistry. I am fully satisfied on interaction time, character development, and especially the MUSIC! Oh, I am in love with the music. I bought this soundtrack and the whole family loves it, it is just good music. Here is a little clip from the movie, it is short (3 minutes) and is arguably my favorite clip of the movie. My only complaint of this movie is that I think sometimes Romola (Emma) is a little too silly and not sophisticated enough for Emma. Overall, I am so impressed with it and will buy this one.
If you don't want to want to watch the whole thing, start at 45 seconds for the music (although I don't know how you could miss any of it).
I have been so intimidated by this book, but after my friend, Jamie, read it a while ago and said it was a good one, I decided to give it a try. It took me 8 weeks to start it (thank goodness for online renewals from the library) and I finally tackled it. The first part was hard for me to understand and I wasn't giving it a huge chance. At some point, I was so drawn in, and I couldn't put it down after that. I loved the story so much. I love the Jane Eyre character so much. I am not a huge Wuthering Heights fan (Charlotte Bronte's sister Emily wrote it) so I had my doubts, but Jane Eyre is much lighter and happier than Wuthering Heights. Definitely worth it and I think I will buy this book.
Jane Eyre (1983)I tried to decide which one to get, there are so many out. This one had good reviews, so I thought I would try it. Overall, it is well made and sticks VERY close to the book, lots of quotes from the book. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Mr. Rochester and Jane (Maybe it was because he is 18 inches taller!) Also it is an older movie that was redone on DVD and you can tell. It has kind of that old style of filming in some parts. While I shouldn't judge on that part, it kind of bugged me. It was pretty good, but I definitely won't buy it.
Jane Eyre (2006) I really enjoyed this movie. I loved the Mr. Rochester in this movie, I thought he did an awesome job. I also loved the Jane. It really came to life for me (as cheesy as that sounds) . There aren't very many movies that do that for me (another that comes to mind is Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth). I thought they stuck to the story pretty well. They ventured in some parts, but it didn't take away from the story. I haven't decided if I need this one, but I think so. It's one I would be happy to watch again tomorrow.
There you have it. I probably shouldn't admit my obsession with these older stories, but I just love them. I need to take a break from these for now though. I could justify them before because I was finishing a little quilt for Scott and a picnic quilt(pictures to come), but I guess I better get some other stuff done. If you made it to the end of this, congratulations!!
