I'd never seen magic like this before. Highly recommended.

Charming and weird. Also by Miyazaki (http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/), who did Totoro and Princess Mononoke. I love how the dubbing for these Japanese animations requires the Americans to speak doublefast.

I particularly like the costumes and set designs in this movie. Another movie I like just for the costumes is Mrs. Santa Claus. Just Mrs. Claus's outfits, really.

DENSER THAN CHOCOLATE

SENTIMENTAL FAVORITES

When Colin Firth turned around and I saw that sweater (expecting to see the sweater described in the book), I laughed so hard I got the screaming giggles and couldn't stop shaking for the next ten minutes.

Of the people I have ever discussed this film with, all the women liked it and all the men hated it. Even Stephen was lukewarm.

I was a little miffed when I heard this movie described as a "Cinderella story for grownups," but I suppose that's really what it is. It is probably my favorite movie of all time, for both the best and the worst reasons. I particularly admire the way the muted colors evoke England. Sense & Sensibility, by comparison, is awash in sunshine. But it's not the cinematography that has made me watch it dozens of times. Ciaran Hinds is unfuckingbelievable in this movie. Now as you know, British actors look like real people. Real British people, that is, with bad teeth and so on. (Even Hugh Grant's teeth, by Hollywood standards, are deplorable. By British standards, they're perfect.)

Anyway, the first time I saw Ciaran Hinds in this movie, I thought he looked like a total doofus. By the end of the movie, though, I was completely infatuated with Captain Wentworth and thought he was probably the handsomest man I'd ever seen. But I love ALL the performances in this movie: Anne (Amanda Root--she played Miss Temple in Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre, which is kinda weird because Sam West, who plays Mr. Elliott in this movie, played St. John Rivers in Jane Eyre--not to mention Leonard Bast from Howards End, only with shorter hair, which took me forever to figure out and about drove me nuts trying to remember where I'd seen him before), Corin Redgrave as the baronet (he was Hamish in Four Weddings and a Funeral), and Sophie Thompson (who was also in Four Weddings, not to mention the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma and is Emma Thompson's sister) does an outstanding job as sister Mary.

INDEFENSIBLE/MAINSTREAM