Movie Review: Bride and Prejudice (2004)

Oh my gosh, there are times when I absolutely LOVE Bollywood! It's bright and cheerful and so many gorgeous colors all in one fantastic kaleidoscope!

I would like to make some grand statement that I'm watching every single adaptation ever made of Pride and Prejudice, but no, I just wanted to watch a Bollywood film and I hadn't seen Bride and Prejudice yet.

Let's start with what I loved!

Aishwarya Rai! She is one truly stunning woman, and not just stunning, but talented too. I've seen her in Jodha Akbar, a movie I will undoubtedly save for another post because I love it so much, so she really was the clincher in me wanting to watch this movie. And she did not disappoint!

The musical numbers! Yes, literally, I love musicals, and so that very first musical number at the wedding when the guys are dancing to the girls . . . it just won my heart. Plus, I kind of have a teeny crush on Naveen Andrews even though he played Jafar on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Or maybe because he played Jafar. So that dance he did at the beginning, wooing his version of Jane Bennett, was just adorable!

If only all Mr. Bingleys were like Balraj!

I mean, come on, now. He had so much personality in the small amount of screen time they gave him. I'm really starting to appreciate Naveen and wishing he had more roles in movies I would actually want to watch. But such is the hand of fate, and so I must be satisfied with the few things he's done that I care to watch. Ahhhh, how I must suffer!

Okay, okay, you knew it had to happen. I had to move on to what I wasn't 100% sold on.

Darcy. So, undoubtedly Martin Henderson would have worked as Darcy if not for one thing.

Does anyone have an idea what it is?

It involves a massive miscasting that occurred and one that I looked not for until a certain actor rose up out of the sea and approached Lalita (Elizabeth) because he was transfixed by her musical prowess. Who is it, you ask?

DANIEL GILLIES!!!

For those of you who have no idea who this man is, I pity you. Because he is the only reason why I ever started watching The Originals IN THE FIRST PLACE! He is Elijah Mikaelson, the eldest son of the original vampire family, and he is AWESOME.

I love Elijah, and for a second, a brief, minutest moment I forgot what story I was watching and when he emerged from the water, and I recognized him in complete and utter shock, my heart went pitter-pat!

And then he was introduced as Johnnie Wickham and my heart thudded to my heels.

Oh, the anguish! The suffering! The shrieking and tearing of hair! I swear there was sackcloth and ashes involved!

Never in all my years of watching movies have I so desperately wanted a change in casting! Poor Martin, I actually feel a bit sorry for him. Because it's not that I didn't like him, because I did. He was actually quite charming. It's just that Daniel is more charming, which is undoubtedly why they cast him as Wickham because Wickham has oily charm written all over him. It's just that I've never seen Daniel play oily charm, and so I just saw him as pure charm, even playing Wickham.

Literally, nothing Wickham did could have ever been bad enough, wrong enough, for me to have not wanted Lalita to forgive him! Because he loved her! I could see it in his eyes every time he looked at her and if this had been any other story, she would have ended up with him and it all would have been some gross misunderstanding that he'd been messing around! But no, it's a Pride and Prejudice adaptation so Wickham is always the bad guy. ARGHHHH!!!!

Ahem, okay, back to normal now.

Bride and Prejudice is a terrific movie, loads of fun, very mild content (mostly slight innuendo) and if you don't suffer from a major crush on Daniel Gillies like I do, than you'll probably love Martin as Darcy. Poor guy, it's not his fault that I liked Wickham better than Darcy for the first time ever. Although Darcy could have used a haircut. Yep, definitely a haircut.