If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, I LOVE Pride and Prejudice. It’s one of my all time faves, and I’m a sucker for reboots and any manner of variations….. as long as they’re good.
This was… not.
This modern ‘retelling’ centres on Darcy Fitzwilliam who returns to her hometown of Pemberly, OH over Christmas after her mom experiences some health problems. She has been largely estranged from most of her family, and hasn’t been home in years. She runs into Luke Bennet, a former high school classmate, with whom she has immediate chemistry in a weird love-hate way.
There is some obvious ‘trying to modernize this’… with the gender reversals, etc. Her best friend is Bingley Charles, who is a gay man falling in love with the eldest Bennet brother. Ok, fine…? But the rift in their relationship that Darcy “causes” and then “fixes”, is barely a blip on the radar. The modernization of Lydia’s public scandal is the two youngest Bennet brothers being school vandals facing expulsion. Darcy sweeps in to pay for not on the current damages, but any other trouble they might get into in the future. It felt like a stretch to modernize these two misunderstandings and make them compelling.
The painting of Darcy’s character was also a bit of an eye-roll. She is the misunderstood millionaire who appears snobby but really has a heart of gold and loves her family so much. If she loves them so much, why hasn’t she been home in eight years? Especially when the reason for the estrangement is discussed, it is a simple conversation between father and daughter that is laughable in its believability.
It was fortunately a super quick read, because I don’t think I would have given this more than a day of my attention. Not worth the effort, even for the biggest Austen fan.
