Stardate 59853.16 - Pride & Prejudice

I have subscribed to Entertainment Weekly for years. I frequently get e-mails from them where the first X number of people who respond in their respective cities can get a free advance screening pass for two to a movie. I am always either too slow or I am not on-line at all when the e-mails arrive. Years have passed and I have never won anything from them. A lesser may would have given up hope, but not me! I continued to put forth the massive amount of effort required to click on the link in their e-mail, select my city from the web page, and click “submit”. It is a difficult effort, requiring approximately 10 seconds and three clicks, but I continued to persevere. Finally, however, I responded quickly enough…or perhaps I found a movie no-one else wanted to see…and I was rewarded with the pass you see above.

So last night Cheryl and I went to see Pride & Prejudice, starring Keria Knightley (who I’ve had a crush on since Bend It Like Beckham, even though she is way too young for me). It was at the Loews on 34th street on the West Side. Overall, we both gave it a thumbs up. I liked it better than Cheryl, who was somewhat uncomfortable in her 9th month of pregnancy and was squirming by the end. At many points in the movie the audience laughed out loud, and as we exited we overheard one moviegoer exclaim into her cell phone, “I was bawling my eyes out at the end!”

I don’t know if it was all that, but we enjoyed ourselves, and we thought Keria did a fine job. Cheryl thought there were a couple of places were it got slow and things could have been trimmed to help the pacing. I was surprised at how small Donald Sutherland’s role was, for while he appears in lots of scenes he has relatively few lines.

Afterwards I told Cheryl that I think we need to bow more in today’s society, and we need to talk like the people in the movie did. She told me I was free to do that, but I’d be doing it by myself and I’d be the freak who was bowing at parties.

Overall, the movie was very entertaining. We recommend it, and give it two thumbs up. The running time is around 2 hours without previews.