Adicionar um enredo no seu idiomaA re-imagining of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" set in modern day, rural Virginia with Elizabeth Bennet as a man. Ben Bennet is an affluent but seemingly arrogant attorney who unknowin... Ler tudoA re-imagining of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" set in modern day, rural Virginia with Elizabeth Bennet as a man. Ben Bennet is an affluent but seemingly arrogant attorney who unknowingly insults Lee Darcy, a detached factory worker wrongly charged with domestic abuse. Both... Ler tudoA re-imagining of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" set in modern day, rural Virginia with Elizabeth Bennet as a man. Ben Bennet is an affluent but seemingly arrogant attorney who unknowingly insults Lee Darcy, a detached factory worker wrongly charged with domestic abuse. Both men form an immediate dislike for each other which becomes a significant problem when Ben... Ler tudo
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The whole movie is like that: stupid people saying and doing unvaryingly stupid things in the most unrealistic, unbelievable way possible. And there's an extremely annoying, cloying synthesizer-piano muzak soundtrack, the same dull, soporific notes played over and over, oozing its sappy way through every scene, constantly underlining the unrelenting stupidity of everything we see and hear.
I HATE this movie! The guy who plays Lee is gorgeous -- and I mean breathtaking -- but, just like the mountains, his beauty is buried in the mudslide of stupidity that swallows everything in its path.
Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's best work by far, one of the finest and most deeply satisfying novels ever written. It's so good that it has survived many bad adaptations, including this one. But writer-director Byrum Geisler (whoever he is) really shouldn't have told anybody what he was trying to do, because his failure is so monumental that he SHOULD be too embarrassed now to show his face anywhere. There is no HINT of Pride and Prejudice, or any of its marvelous characters, STILL alive 200 years after she created them -- not the tiniest spark of Austen's genius -- anywhere in this stupid movie.
Then I rewatched it and picked up on some really good aspects of the film that were overshadowed by its weaknesses the first time. The cinematography; no, not the easy layups of the Virginia landscapes in Fall. That's the easy stuff. Instead I was more drawn to some of the angles and mixtures of straight on shots with blocked shots within the same scene. It's really well done throughout. As well, the film has a beautiful, and simple, musical score. It is just enough to propel the story; and just as importantly, fill in when the story is becomes unfocused.
Chase Conner's performance stands out but other supporting members are excellent too. Carol Marie Rinn, as the unlikeable girlfriend of Lee Darcy (Chase Conner), finds angles and levels of a fairly simple character, enough to keep you wondering just how much, or whether, you'll end up disliking her. Ethan Sharrett as Ben Bennet gives a wonderfully endearing performance with complexity. His facial expressions reveal myriad competing thoughts as they ricochet through his characters mind. For me, though more than equal to the challenge, he was miscast.
However, the strongest aspect of this film is the performance by Chase Conner. I would love to see him in a better version of this film doing this role just as he does it here. With very little dialogue he embodied the conflict and brokenness of Lee Darcy. He knows how to be on the periphery of a scene, and without saying a word, reveal more of his character to the viewer. And the dialogue he does have - I can't imagine it delivered any better. He's an enormously gifted actor with that rarest of acting skills; the ability to pull away from the camera which pulls you, the viewer, further into the story and closer to his character. Why is he not in more films? I would love to see what he does with other material.
Where it stands fairly well is in its direction and editing. The film is crisp and goes where it needs to without a lot of fuss. Cinematography shows off the scenery quite well.
Where it fails is twofold: one, the script -- and, thus, characterizations -- and, two, the chemistry between the leads. The film indulges in embarrassing cliches, such as the two gay best friends who are ostensibly meant to be taken ironically, I suppose; but they come off as a couple of losers. Cringeworthy, even. The women don't fare very well, especially Darcy's girlfriend. Their acting is fine; it's just that the women -- and some of the men -- appear to be in a different movie. The girlfriend is a homophobic shrew....which gives rise to a related problem, that of open homophobia clearly expressed. While it's certainly understandable that these attitudes exist, why this film, ostensibly about a slow-brewing romance, indulges homophobia to the extent it does is problematic. We've all heard these things before; and rather than make us dislike more the characters who are homophobic, you are aghast that the script is so in-your-face about this. Less of this would have been better.
The two leads are fine; yet in so far as they are physically quite different so too is there zero chemistry. Bennett is all sincerity and feelings while Darcy is all brooding and impenetrable. They are oil and water and it just does not work. The ending -- and this is a sort of spoiler but not really, as the ending is clearly what you think it will be, especially if you know the novel -- where they kiss has to be the most unromantic moment I've ever witnessed in a film.
Huge plot hole: a neighbour believes she sees Darcy hit his girlfriend -- he doesn't -- and hears him threaten to harm her. No one challenges this, not even the police officer, by saying "Where were you when you heard the threat?" She was in her own house next door and all the windows were closed; even if she had been outside she couldn't have heard a thing. This is just sloppy.
One final point: the music / soundtrack. It's like you're in a shopping mall. I get that scoring a film costs money. But the producer could have avoided this simply by using less music but of better quality.
That's because this reinterpretation has turned Jane Austen's characters upside down. D'Arcy and Bingley are poor, not rich, and (characters equivalent to) the Bennett sisters are concerned about marrying beneath their status rather than above.
That's clever, and one of the few reinterpretations of Pride & Prejudice that's not a poor imitation, it's completely different. Pride & Prejudice is a social satire, and a comedy of manners. This film, on the other hand, isn't funny. There is a little comic relief, but it's feeble and the film would have been better without it.
By no means is the dialog scintillating, and some plot devices are pretty weak (though probably no less contrived than Austen's). I personally was annoyed by the maudlin piano soundtrack in scenes where it was not only unnecessary, it was distracting.
There are additional flaws that one could complain about, but overall I found myself able to overlook them. There is a lot to admire here, and it easily drew me in. I'd say give it a chance, especially if you are a fan of Jane Austen.
The good news is that you seldom find a senior career intelligence officer and combat ship captain in retirement who is poor. The skills, experience, knowledge and insights acquired, and priceless personal contacts thereby garnered frequently transfer favorably to the world of business.
Which brings me to "Before the Fall" (2016), written and directed by Byrum Geisler.
Ah yes, my marriage. Strip away the time frame, the civilian dress, the historical peculiarities, and especially the lack of reference to war, to killing, and to the absence of marshal mayhem generally and the eventually righted miscarriage of UCMJ justice that I personally engineered out of a sense of simple justice and out of my passionate, my absolute consuming interest in the object of my desire, you will find the accurate beginning of the latticework of my life-long love affair, who unhappily died before I did.
The clown responsible for the UCMJ miscarriage of justice was eventually keelhauled by the Navy in a fashion similar to the tender mercies of the Virginia state bar as described in "Before the Fall". To my complete satisfaction.
I salute Mr. Geisler and his crew and staff for their subtle and sophisticated rendering of a slice of life drawn, in my opinion, and especially in my experience from real life, gay or straight.
Or gay AND straight, because from this movie, both apply.
Parenthetically, the cinematography is excellent.
I give this fine movie an IMDb rating of 7.0.
Você sabia?
- CuriosidadesJane Austen's novel of manners 'Pride and Prejudice' was only published in 1813, even though it was originally titled 'First Impressions' and was written between October 1796 and August 1797.
- Citações
Jane Gardiner: I hope I'm not defined by the worst thing that I've ever done.
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- How long is Before the Fall?Fornecido pela Alexa
Detalhes
- Data de lançamento
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- Também conhecido como
- Пре јесени
- Locações de filme
- Grayson Highlands State Park, Virgínia, EUA(hiking scenes, listed in end credits 'filmed on location in')
- Empresa de produção
- Consulte mais créditos da empresa na IMDbPro
- Tempo de duração1 hora 32 minutos
- Cor
- Proporção
- 2.35 : 1