Pride and Prejudice, The Mormon Version

Of course there's the epic BBC Pride and Prejudice and the more recent Keira Knightly version. And there's the Bollywood Bride and Prejudice (with the incomparable song, "No Life Without Wife"). But I don't think that I've ever recommended to you, my dear readers, one of my favorite versions of Pride and Prejudice: Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy.

It's set in more or less contemporary America (well, it's set in Utah); it's rated PG--there's no alcohol, and only kissing, nothing more. Elizabeth Bennett is a motivated English major who's working on her first novel; Darcy is a top executive in a publishing company. Liz and her four roommates embark on dizzying romantic adventure (for instance, Lydia and Wickham are intercepted during an attempted elopement to Vegas when Lydia's roommates expose the fact that Wickham's been married before [implicit message: polygamy is bad, bad, bad!]).

Several things are excellent about this film. A) I cannot conceive of a better parody of Mr. Bingley--he is utterly vacuous, but oh so nice and madly in love with Jane. B) Okay so everyone ends up married (more or less), but the film really reacts against the tendency for girls to obsess about men (it features and obviously critiques "The Pink Bible"--a mass market hit telling women how to scheme and connive to snag a man). C) It's hilarious!: the big critique of Wickham is that he's stopped going to church; other scenes are set in the church itself (with some of the girls in long skirts that I haven't seen since my homeschooling days). Plus, Darcy is British and actually charming in his own way.

Highly recommended, particularly for the nights you, dear reader, want to lock yourself up with gallons and gallons of ice cream (as Liz and Jane do).

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