Lost In Austen (2008/British TV Mini-Series/Image DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: C+
In an interesting twist that almost works, the British
Mini-Series Lost In Austen has a young
woman who loves the book Pride &
Prejudice so much that she feels she is almost there, then we find her
reliving the whole book. Of course, it
becomes less interesting when that happens, but at least the makers tried
something different. Gemma Arterton (Quantum Of Solace) plays Elizabeth
Bennet, the fantasizer. She saves this
from its length and problems, much the way she made yet another version of Tess Of The D’Ubervilles (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) better.
Image Entertainment has edited the four hour-long episodes
into an extended feature and that helps too, but this is only at its best when
Arterton is narrating the thing, which offers ironic distance in the piece and
should have been the route they went and stuck with more often. It offers life to the now-tired retellings of
some of the most overrated books of our time, made that way by a bad trend
which has not always been women-friendly.
However, this has its moments and though it will grow thin for non-fans,
Lost In Austen is worth a look and
shows Arterton’s star is on the rise.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is on the soft
side and not just because it was stylized that way. Locations and the overall production give the
camera something to show, but is a generally pleasing shoot and does not look
too much like stuffy British TV. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has little in the way of surrounds, but is a good,
clean, clear recording. Arterton’s
voice-overs are especially clear. Extras
include a 43-minutes-long behind the scenes piece and trailer for this edition.
- Nicholas Sheffo
