My Review of Northanger Abbey

Here's a description of the movie from the PBS Masterpiece Classic website:

"Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones, Meadowlands) has an ordinary life and a feverish imagination. When she gets invited to Bath, Catherine is immersed in a world of elaborate balls and handsome men. When one suitor takes her to his family estate, Northanger Abbey, Catherine becomes mired in a world of fact and fantasy. Is there a dark mystery behind the locked doors of Northanger Abbey? Why has her budding romance suddenly been cut short? Also starring JJ Feild (The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton), Andrew Davies adapts Austen's gentle parody of gothic fiction."

My Review:

The first time I watched this movie (last spring on T.V.), I fell in love. Part of it, I'm sure, had to do with how much I related to the main character. Her overactive imagination, her desire for adventure and romance, her obvious good taste in men (*smile*)...all added up to a fun and authentic heroine.

But another rather big, big part of the reason I love this movie is the hero himself. He is amazing! With a wonderful and engaging sense of humor, an adorable smile, and a dashing tenderness, Henry Tilney captured my heart. From his very first entrance into the story, his teasing and his kind ways won me over. Can you tell I really like him?

The plot is interesting and clever, the scenes depicting Catherine's day-dreaming are too funny (and some of the early ones are sadly familiar...), and the romance is very sweet. The only problems I had with it were due to unnecessary cleavage and unnecessary swearing (very little on the part of the "villain," but still annoying). Otherwise, this is a great Jane Austen movie adaptation with some helpful lessons regarding jumping to conclusions and money vs. love.

Additional Thoughts:

If I first watched this over half a year ago, why am I reviewing Northanger Abbey now? Good question! Well, last night I had been eagerly looking forward to watching another Masterpiece Mystery episode of Sherlock Holmes (the first one, "A Study in Pink"), which I was planning on reviewing here. It was going to be the perfect ending to my day. Unfortunately, the movie was not loading properly. Since my roommate was going to watch it with me, she tried to load it on her computer, as well--to no avail. I think the Internet is not working as well as we'd like it to here on campus at this moment!

Needless to say, I was rather disappointed. I had been so excited to watch another episode of Sherlock Holmes, and I had been thinking about it off and on throughout my day. However, since we were both up anyway, my roommate and I decided to still watch a movie. And--you guessed it--we watched Northanger Abbey, which was really fun! So it was still a really good evening. I loved this movie so much when I first saw it on T.V. that I ended up buying it not long after. I think it was a good investment. ;)

Maybe I'll get to watch more Sherlock Holmes soon, in which case I'll plan on posting my review(s) here. For now, I hope you enjoyed this review of another great PBS Masterpiece show!