Lost in Austen

I love Jane Austen.  I love the books.  I love the movies.  I love books about the books and movies about the movies.  I own Jane Austen Book Club and really enjoy listening to them talking about all of Austen's amazing novels.  In 2009, the British mini television series, Lost in Austen, was released on DVD in the U.S. and somehow I just heard about it.

Lost in Austen is about Amanda Price, played by Jemima Rooper, is a young woman living in London and grew up reading Pride and Prejudice and loves the romance of it all.  She would rather spend her nights curled up with Austen then spend time with her not very nice boyfriend.  One day she hears something in the bathroom and discovers Elizabeth Bennett, who tells her of a doorway that leads between present day London and The Bennett's home in Victorian England.  Elizabeth urges her to go through the door and they end up swapping places.  Amanda is then immersed into Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and with Elizabeth's absence is required to help set the story the way it's supposed to go.  But because of Amanda's presence everything changes and she has to try and realign the characters with the people they are really supposed to be with.  This short but amazing mini series, is very funny and sorta like a train wreck to watch.  You just can't look away.  Because I love Pride and Prejudice it was very entertaining to watch how everything goes wrong and how Amanda learns to be in Austen's world.  I would recommend watching this to anyone who loves Austen.  As an avid reader, I can't help but think about how amazing it would be if I could be sucked into my favorite books.

Wake: A suspenceful romance.

I recently got Netflix and watching movies instantly on my computer is my new favorite past time.  And has sense become my new obsession.  As I quickly made my instant queue grow from 1 to 25 in just a couple minutes, I started to think of other movies and television shows I enjoy.  As Vampire Diaries is my current television obsession, I started looking at other movies that the 3 main stars had been in.  Nina Dobrev didn't really star in anything else that caught my attention so I moved onto Paul Wesley.  What I really wanted to watch was ABC Family's mini series Fallen but that was only watchable through DVD.  Deeply saddened, I moved onto Ian Somerhalder.  This is when I came across the movie Wake.  With tags of romance, comedy, and suspense I was intrigued enough to watch the trailer.  After finding that captivating I waited until I had enough time and watched the whole movie and was glad I did.

Wake is about Carys, played by Bijou Phillip, who is a woman who has an odd fascination with death and funerals and ends up crashing the funeral of a dead woman.  When saying goodbye to her "loved one" the woman's engagement ring falls off and into Carys' hand.  Before she can discretely slip the ring back on, the woman's fiance, Tyler (Ian Somerhalder), comes up to her, inquiring on how she knew the deceased.  After awkwardness, lies and oddly place flirting, Carys and Tyler strike up an odd bond and friendship.  They soon become romantically involved and she is made aware that Tyler is suspected of murdering his dead fiance.

While the movie isn't exactly the best, it's amazingly witty and really great.  I've never heard of the lead but she was quirky and worked well in this movie.  Ian Somerhalder does very well in the role of a devoted fiance who just can't understand how he's falling for someone so soon after his love's death.  My initial thoughts after watching this movie where that it was bizarre but very, very charming and I know I'll be watching it again in the future.  Give this hidden gem a chance, I think it's worth it.