Unstoppable vs. Pride and Prejudice, A Case Study

If you are a parent like me, your night out on the town consists of sitting on the couch with your significant other, watching the latest from Netflix and having a special treat from Trader Joe’s … at least this is my normal night "out". Because of this, most of my movie reviews will be older ones. We try to catch up on what we haven’t seen in the theaters every summer. Luckily, this is something my significant other and I enjoy doing together.

Last night we watched Unstoppable. “Easy on the eyes”, Chris Pine played opposite, “I sometimes play the same character”, Denzel Washington in trying to stop a runaway train. That’s it. That was the movie. To be honest, I could have watched it on mute. The characters didn’t have much depth and the dialogue was pretty predictable. The acting was fine but the script was just bleh. Most of the scenes were of a speeding train, careening unmanned through the charmless countryside/rail yards of Pennsylvania (ten points to who can guess what Live song is in my head right now). Before you berate me on the beauties of Pennsylvania, I have seen some very pretty locales there, but they were not in this movie. I would have enjoyed some more explosions. Yes, I enjoy a “manly” action movie every now and again.

Now on to my favorite. Pride and Prejudice…ahhh. What a difference a little added Brit makes. The only reason I write about this is because I caught about 20 minutes of the Keira Knightley version on E while waiting for Jason to figure out what was wrong with the computer before we started Unstoppable. (By the way, that is also one of my faves — my husband is very technically literate and I find that very attractive.) Thank you, E, yes, it is a movie I love too. Now P&P has great actors (Donald Sutherland — who else is excited to see him as President Snow next year?) and beautiful cinematography (idyllic England, not scruffy Pennsylvania) but, let me backtrack, the movie would be NOTHING without the master writing of Jane Austen. Her comical back and forth chatter amongst Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Bennett; Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy; and Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine can’t be matched. And the movie does a good job staying true to Austen’s words. I also really like the director, Joe Wright. He has such an amazing way of telling a story through his camera work - in one shot with no cuts, he travels through the Netherfield ball showcasing all the main characters, room to room. (SIDENOTE: He did an amazing scene in Atonement, too, on the beach at Dunkirk - this movie is also a fave.) Now all you BBC purists out there, I adore that P&P version just as much. Who can resist Colin Firth? But when you don’t have 5 hours to devote watching it, Keira will do. So, go rent either version and see for yourself what you missed out in high school English. You can skip Unstoppable.