Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Movie: Little Dorrit



My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9 (actually, it’s not quite a 9.5, but probably a 9.3 or 9.25 or somewhere in there. J Yes, I’m being too precise…which is why I went for just a 9)
Genre: Classic, romance, life
Primary actors: Clare Foy, Matthew MacFadyen, Andy Serkis
Length: 7.5 hours according to the back, but popularly rumored to be 8 hours. J
Based on: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.
Time period: 1800’s
Year it came out: 2008
My overall opinion: I really liked it. Matthew MacFadyen is unbelievably better than he was in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice which is where you all know him from. J I really liked the soundtrack, I found Amy to be a lovely heroine, the scenery etc was awesome, and it was altogether worth 8 hours. Can’t wait to watch it again. There are a few objectionable scenes, but if you watch it with someone who’s watched it before, you can figure out what to skip. (Or, if you’d like, email me and I’ll send you the list I have of what to skip) I used a list from Miss Elizabeth (Elegance of Fashion) and just using that was enough to miss everything bad. It includes Mrs. Jennings from S&S 95, and Andy Serkis is Gollum in Lord of the Rings. I loved it!







There's Andy Serkis! Scary. And you know what? I SAW that very dress that she's wearing in that picture in a traveling show of various movie costumes. Now I saw it before I saw the movie, but studied it carefully and managed to identify it! How cool is that?

18 comments:

Miss Dashwood said...

Wait... Mrs. Jennings is in Little Dorrit??? That is so cool! I never noticed her before... who does she play?

Anne Greff said...

Glad you finally got to see it!! I LOVE this movie, the plot is so intriguing. :) And Andy Serkis definitely makes a creepy bad guy... *shiver*.

The Mad Elvish Poet said...

I LOVED this movie! And then when I saw Andy Serkis on the LOTR appendices, I freaked out!

Miss Laurie of Old-Fashioned Charm said...

So glad you enjoyed Little Dorrit, it's one of my favorites!
That's so neat that you saw Amy's dress in a traveling show of movie costumes! It's a lovely dress!
Andy Serkis is good at playing scary characters, it takes quite a bit of talent to play them convincingly. It's so funny to see him in the goatee and period dress! I too love Matthew Macfadyen best in this film! :)

Unknown said...

I love that movie too, if you take out the objectionable things. :) Amy is so good!
When we talk about it sometimes, Sarah (younger sis) will be like, "You did that, Amy?" lol


Amy W.

Julia said...

Hi Charity,

I would LOVE a list of what not to watch in this movie, I really want to see it but I'd like to know where to fast-forward. :D

I can leave you a comment with my email address or you can just comment with the list on my blog:

jewelsbyjulia-lauren.blogspot.com

Thank you SO much! :)

Melody said...

I'm so glad you liked this, Charity! But we all knew you would. Remember when we kept saying "Matthew MacFadyen is better as Arthur...really, he is!" ? ;-)

Don't you just love Amy? She's so sweet...Charles Dickens is very fond of creating sweet and gentle heroines, I notice.

I don't believe Elizabeth Spriggs (Mrs Jennings '95) is on Little Dorrit. Were you by any chance getting confused with Pam Ferris (aka Mrs. General--the 'Papa, poultry, prunes, and prism'one)? She's on a few other period dramas as well, such as Jane Eyre 2006, Our Mutual Friend, and Pollyanna.

Elizabeth said...

I really want to watch this some day! :)

Josh Martin said...

This is a great movie. Sadly when I watched it I had the stomach flu. That made it not quite so enjoyable. But still amazing.
Matthew Macfadden is by far my favorite actor.
You should read the book sometime Charity. Barns and Noble has it for $10.

Josh Martin

Charity U said...

Miss Dashwood, I think I may have been mixed up about Mrs. Jennings being in...see Melody's comment a little ways down.

Anne, I agree!

Mad Elvish Poet, I know, isn't it cool?

Miss Laurie, mine too. :) Need to add it to my favorite movies list!

Amy, lol!

Julia, email me and remind me to send it to you, please. :) I'll forward on what Miss Elizabeth sent to me. My email: charityu.austenite[at]gmail[dot]com BTW, I am coming back to a JAusten background of yours...or maybe something chocolatey...or blue...anyway, once winter's closer to done, I'll have one of yours back up!

Melody, Amy is sweet. And not sickly sweet either...a relief to me, since some heroines are. :P Yes, I remember all the Matthew MacFadyen stuff...and he WAS tons better. I can't remember why I though that about Mrs. Jennings...you may be right.

Elizabeth, definitely do!

Josh, what, you like MacFadyen better than LotR actors? Or did you just mean your favorite in this movie? I do want the book...but am trying to save. :P Probably will get it cheap and used off Amazon someday. It'll be reviewed!

Melody said...

Also, about LD scenes to skip, I have a section for that under "What I didn't like about Little Dorrit" in my review here: http://regencydelight-janeaustenetc.blogspot.com/2011/03/little-dorrit-movie.html

Josh Martin said...

Ah, you make a good point. I must say that I do like him better han lotr actors, only because of his personal life. He has been in mainly good films and lives a pretty clean life. Sadly the same can not be said of the lotr actors. I love them in the trilogy, but other than that, there are only about 5 movies I would watch that have one of them in it. They just arent very clean. And I think Orlando Bloom is way too over rated. He was amazing in lotr and good in the first pirates and decent in the second. After that, it all went down hill. Not to mention that gandalf is gay. Anyway, Thats what I think. Let me know if you agree or not.

In Christ alone,
Josh Martin

Charity U said...

Josh, Ah. I don't keep up on actor's lives much. Okay, not at all. The 05 P&P was not nearly as good as the 95 one, from this Austenite's view.

Josh Martin said...

I agree. The 95 one was better, however, I like Matthew Macfadden better than Colin Firth. I think he played the part much more proper and when Firth appeared in Nanny Macfee, he lost all respect from me.

Josh Martin

Alyianna said...

ANDY!!! :P

Charity U said...

Josh, I can't STAND MacFadyen in P&P. He's terrible. The worst part of that version. SO not Mr. Darcy. (not to mention Mr. Darcy would never have been caught wandering around half dressed, no matter if he had spent the night before without sleep). The Nanny McPhee role was much different for Firth, I agree. And I liked him much better as Mr. Darcy.

Sorry -- the whole Darcy thing is a pet peeve. ;)

Miss Elizabeth Bennet said...

Sorry I took so long to comment on this. It's been busy lately.

I'm very glad you enjoyed Little Dorrit and that my list helped you. If any time you need a list for another period drama, I'll do my best to help you out!

Before I watched Little Dorrit, I was skeptical of Matthew MacFadyen being in it since I didn't like him in P&P 2005 (or what I've seen from it), but I was pleasantly surprised that he did a good job in Little Dorrit.

Anonymous said...

This is probably my favorite BBC period drama except maybe the 2009 Emma, and Cranford, which it would tie for first. :)