North and South

Movie: North and South
Like/Don't Like: I liked it so much I asked it to go steady with me.

Here's the question: Why haven't I heard of this movie before? Why hasn't Netflix recommended it? Why haven't I seen it on Masterpiece Theatre? I'm 80 and I watch Masterpiece Theatre ALL THE TIME and I don't even remember hearing about this. And if you're my friend and have seen it, why haven't you made me watch it? If I find out that any of you have known about this movie but didn't bother mentioning it to me then we're through. Turn in your Friend of Rachel membership card. Because if there were ever a movie made just for me it would be this. Seriously, it was so great! (Note to the guys who may have come across this blog: you can probably stop reading. It's a 4 hour period chick flick. Unless you liked Pride and Prejudice when your girlfriend/wife/girl you were trying to impress made you watch it you're probably not going to be running out to buy it. Although if your girlfriend/wife/girl you're trying to impress asks if you want to watch it, say yes. Always say yes to that question, because you know she always watches your guy movies with you.) Rac (my one true friend!) recommended this to me a few months ago. Here's a direct quote from her e-mail, "I got North and South for my birthday (swoon, swoon)." Swoon indeed. There were at least a dozen times I could have used some smelling salts.

This was a cross between Jane Austen and Dickens, with a little Newsies thrown in. Yep, there's a strike. Although they don't break out into song and dance when they march on the establishment. Briefly: a girl and her parents move from their home in the genteel south of England to a textile town up north and she meets (swoon, swoon) a slightly stern but fair businessman. And dreamy. I should definitely say dreamy. He's a stern but fair dreamy dreamboat businessman.

I think one of the reasons I liked it so much was because I didn't know the story going into it. I already knew Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, and Jane Eyre (if you have not seen the newest Jane Eyre run, run I say, to the nearest Blockbuster and pick it up. Or if you're local you can borrow it from me. Or we can have a slumber party and watch it. Every other adaptation is a big pile of poo compared to it.) But this was all new to me so even though it played out as I expected, and hoped, I still wasn't sure that it would. Especially because the last adaptation of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel that I saw, Wives and Daughters, did not end as I had hoped. Well, it did end as I had hoped, but it didn't end with a kiss and you know how much I think the kiss is necessary at the end.

But, oh girls, this ending. Yep, this one is a winner. I am not ashamed to say that when it was over I re-watched the ending 3 times and then decided that I hadn't had enough so I watched the whole second half again. Oh, alright, and I woke up this morning and did a "good parts" viewing. That's how good it is!

Watch it right now! I don't ever want you saying I kept this from you.

Addemdum: I just got off the phone with Katie and she told me that she watched it last night too and completely agrees that it was the swooniest of all swoony movies.