"There are Darcys in the world, after all."
Hello everyone!
See, Hallmark has been a staple for me ever since I started this blog, way back when.
And earlier, too.
I can vividly remember some of the earliest movies that launched once this service came into being (still looking for one in particular that I can't seem to find no matter what, but I'll get there!), and since then, it's become a bit of a powerhouse in churning out flicks to watch.
This year, they decided to treat February as their own Jane Austen month, and wouldn't you know it, but I LOVE Austen, too. So a match made in heaven, then!
I might watch some of their other things as well, but to begin with, we'll be looking at something rather fun: Paging Mr. Darcy.
Links to some related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, seeing as I've covered a lot of Austen on here during the passing of years!
But Paging Mr. Darcy is the story of pragmatic Eloise (Mallory Jansen), who's been invited as keynote speaker to JALA, the Jane Austen League of America, which meets once a year and has lots of Regency-inspired fun because, why not?
Problem is, Eloise is the furthest thing from an Austen romantic heroine, and in fact insists (to a poor soul stuck beside her on the flight there, who's actually flirting, or trying to, she just doesn't get it) that she was a great writer first, and romance just came later .
Anyway, upon landing, she's met by our hero, Sam (Will Kemp), who also happens to be dressed up fully as Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame, totally in character, top hat included.
As Eloise likes neither the attention nor the spotlight, you can imagine this absolutely mortifies her, but she's kind of stuck with him as her guest-of-honour liaison, so he takes her to the hotel where JALA's happening, and is kind of going to be by her side throughout the conference, which, as she can tell immediately ... has a lot of dressing up and random other activities she doesn't consider fun at all.
Problem is, Sam's aunt, the woman she's trying to impress, DOES. See, Eloise only accepted this whole thing because Sam's aunt is on the hiring committee for Princeton, and Eloise DESPERATELY wants to get the job.
So she and Sam make a pact: he'll help her, if she helps him in return by blocking another candidate who's been sniffing around his aunt ever since his arrival.
This of course leads to some hilarious scenes of learning how to dance, making bonnets, and just generally sharing life stories between our main characters (we learn Eloise used to love dressing up and stuff like that, but because high school kids can be cruel, she stopped, and that Sam was a shy computer nerd who sold his start-up company and is rich as Croesus, now dressing up as Mr. Darcy once a year because it makes women happy wherever he pops up) while the rest goes on in the background.
By 'the res' I mostly mean Eloise's sister Mia, who crashes her hotel room after she and her long-standing boyfriend Rob break up since he can't seem to take her seriously, and also he's pragmatic rather than the romantic she wants.
Anyway, after a minor crisis concerning food is averted (which Eloise helps with since she's kind of an expert on Regency cuisine really), you'd think things are mostly sorted out between the main characters, even Sam's aunt seems to think so, but then one of Eloise's former students who's also here at the conference needs help with her play, and Mia gets her main character syndrome on, which inconveniently pushes Eloise into the shadows once more.
Not only that, but she has to watch her sister "kiss" Sam on stage, and hang out with him a lot, which hurts her to her core, and of course Sam doesn't really read her reaction properly when she tells him as much, translating her jealousy and pain into her wishing to hurt him, so he tells her that she basically hurt his feelings on day one by dismissing what he does as Mr. Darcy, and that he doesn't want to dance with someone who doesn't want to dance with him, anyway.
All very high school all over again, to be honest, but the sisters talk and make up afterwards, and the next day Eloise delivers her keynote address, learning Sam's aunt will in fact hire her, which makes everything better! She then does what she's sworn all movie she'd never do: dresses up in period-appropriate garments for the ball, during which Mia's boyfriend shows up, all decked out in Regency finery, to pop the big question.
It turns out - as Mia reveals - that SAM spent the entire day talking to the guy and lent him his costume for the big pow-wow, and once Sam himself shows up (in regular clothes, because for some reason his dinner outfit didn't make it), Eloise asks him to the dance floor. She then admits that the best thing he ever could have done was help Mia, just like Mr. Darcy helped the Bennett sisters, and the two kiss among all the celebration.
The end!
Light, airy, but also poignant in describing someone who's more used to helping from the shadows rather than being in the spotlight, Paging Mr. Darcy is a fun hour and a half that will also hopefully tug at some of your heartstrings.
I'm sure plenty of us see ourselves as Eloise, with lots of Mias in our lives that usually steal all the stage for themselves, but if this movie proves anything, it's that there's a Mr. Darcy for everyone!
Interestingly, Eloise and Mia are definitely based off the sisters in Sense and Sensibility, with their names even beginning using the same letters, conveying their personalities before you even meet them properly. It's also fun how the roles are reversed at the end of the movie: Eloise in costume and Sam out of it, as it's said throughout that Sam doesn't feel as confident or as suave when he isn't playing Mr. Darcy. With a script, he can do anything, but without one, he's still the shy high school nerd, so I thought it was lovely how that simple switch showed that he and Eloise are both ready for a new challenge.
Overall, this was beautiful, not too dramatic and over-the-top, and a fine way to begin the Loveuary segment of Hallmark's programming. Definitely recommend (and also, Sam's aunt was being COURTED by the other candidate, natch)!
xx
*images and video not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment