Matthew Walton’s Blog

Last night my family and I went to see the new film version of Pride and Prejudice, starring Matthew MacFadyen (formerly of Spooks) and Keira Knightley (who we all know to be wonderful in Pirates of the Carribean). And some other people who’s names I can’t recall, apart from Penelope Wilton (Mrs. Gardiner) and Dame Judi Dench (Lady Catherine de Bourgh).

First the disclaimer: I am a huge fan of both the book and the BBC adaptation of it, although my introduction to the joy of the book came through the BBC series. Therefore I’m biased to start with. And surely, I told myself, how well can they tell the story in so little time? One reason the BBC did so well is because they had six hours in which to do it.

Well really, the film wasn’t too bad. They got the important bits across. Mr. Collins was very well-handled indeed. A slightly difference stance on his character to the BBC version, but that’s not at all a problem, as their stance was also good. He wasn’t as slimey or odious, but he was socially useless and incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing.

And very short. There was a lot of camera work which emphasised that.

Keira Knightley giggled too much. It seemed a little out of place, for Lizzie is supposed to be one of the more sensible sisters (alongside Jane). and okay, so she was, because the sillier ones were even sillier than I would have thought necessary. Still, for a mainstream audience I suppose you have to drum things into them with a very large stick sometimes.

They changed the ending. I’m not entirely sure that was good, but it was okay. The outcome’s the same, but it’s done a little differently. They did handle Mr. Bingley proposing to Jane quite well, and Rosamund Pike looked rather lovely in that role (as Jane, not as Mr. Bingley).

They dropped Mr. and Mrs. Hirst entirely. I can’t say I blame them — including them would have wasted some valuable time and they’re not really essential to the story. But they are fun.

Umm… I liked the choice of house for Longbourn. Chatsworth doesn’t make a good Pemberley, but that’s probably because I’ve got my heart stuck on it being Lyme Park, as the BBC chose. That just seems more right.

They didn’t include the famous ‘wet shirt’ scene, but that’s not very surprising given that the BBC added that one themselves.

Mrs. Bennet was generally good, but the listening at doors things was a little too obvious and indiscreet. Many things seem to have been exaggerated in it.

The music at the assemblies and balls was good. Not so keen on the rest of the soundtrack, and also not sure that they would have necessarily had groups of musicians that large to play at that sort of gathering. It did sound good though, so I’m not too upset by that.

Oh, and the choice of house for Rosings Park… wow. That’s impressive indeed.

I just ran across a spam which pretends (rather sloppily) to be an e-card notification. However, it appears to want to install something in order to view it… since I’ve got Flash and Java on this Mac, I am not inclined to trust what it might want to install (presumably it’s a Windows thing). Might be malware… just thought I’d mention it.

So here I am sitting in the middle of groundside at London Stansted Airport, chewing up my laptop battery by using a wireless hotspot to access the Internet. Why? Because I can! Would be nice if I could find a mains power point somewhere that I’m allowed to use to top up the battery, but no real bad thing if it doesn’t last. I’ve already written about 1,500 words sat here before I came online, so NaNoWriMo proceeds quite nicely.

But I figured while I’m here I should write a blog entry and let people know what I’m doing, because I’ve been quite lax lately. The reason I’m at Stansted, as some of you will know, is because I’m going to Germany. The reason I’m bored enough to spend six quid on an OpenZone one hour access pass is because I got here at 9am and the flight doesn’t leave until 13:45. Consequently the checkin desks aren’t even open yet.

Why, you may ask, did I do such a stupid thing? Basically, Mum has to work today (she doesn’t usually work Fridays) so it was either get a lift to the station with her, or get the bus to the station. Actually, two buses. Now those of you who know me well may know what I think of Cambridge buses, so you won’t really be surprised at my choice. After all, I’ve got the laptop and my iPod and my NaNoWriMo novel to write. And indeed that’s what I’m doing! Sitting here listening to Danú on my iPod (for those of you wondering, they’re an Irish folk group, very good), and writing my story. Well, a blog entry at the moment, but I was writing my story, honest!

Current word count is 16,700 or so, by the way.

I’ve been off work all week and will be off next week, using up holiday. Gotta love that, taking time off for no reason other than that I can. Fabulous. I have to use at least two more days after this as well, before the end of December, as I’m only allowed to carry five over into next year. I suspect I’ll use that some time around Christmas.

Sunday was Halloween of course, and once more those you know me well will have no surprise that I spent it celebrating the Pagan Sabbat known as Samhain (it’s Celtic, you pronounce it ‘sow-en’, or at least that’s how everyone usually pronounces it in this country). We had a most fantastic venue for it in the middle of some woods, with a fire and a huge circle marked out with about fifty little tealights, nice quarter candles (which stayed alight for once, makes a change from Litha), the largest God and Goddess candles on the altar I have ever seen, and a very nicely planned ritual by Spiral Circle. Kudos to you guys for that, and if you want to invite me to any more rituals, I’ll attend like a shot!

It was rather odd to gather in a car park, a group of witches to celebrate Halloween, and see all the little kiddies dressed up as witches and ghosts and assorted monsters going out trick-or-treating, or to a Halloween party that seemed to be happening nearby. I wonder what they would have thought if they’d known what we were doing? Probably not best to find out experimentally, as it might upset the little dears and we wouldn’t want that. A shame though, as it shouldn’t — we’re perfectly harmless.

Heh, the airport announcer is reminding everyone that people aren’t allowed to ride on the luggage trolleys. Show how bored that it’s possible to get at an airport I guess.

What else have I been up to? Ah yes. Built a computer for Richard, got a book on compiler design, arranged to go to Nottingham next Monday to talk to potential PhD supervisors (that’s let the cat out of the bag at work if anyone there is still reading my blog — don’t worry, I’m not leaving yet), made some fudge, scowled at some people, wrote a lot of words, watched Battlestar Galactica (the new series, very good, will keep watching it) and watched Strictly Come Dancing with a surprising (to me) amount of interest. A shame I’m going to miss it, I should ask Mum and Dad to record it I think. and Smallville and Stargate SG-1 on Sunday.

iCal just popped up to remind me that I’ve got to catch my plane in three hours time. should be able to check in in an hour I think… fingers crossed to get rid of this enormous bag.

Just about time to wrap this up I think. See you when I get back from Germany, I should have lots of good photos to post as the scenery where I’m going is incredible, and I intend to capture as much of it as possible. Might even get some good source material to give this site a bit of a face lift, as really I have to face the fact that it’s just a slightly tweaked default template at the moment.

And with that, auf wiedersehen!

I need to get my acquisitive instincts under control. I decided it’s about time I had a memory upgrade so I went for another 512MB stick, to bring the total up to a healthy 1GB. Very nice. But I ordered the wrong kind of memory (stupid, stupid boy) and when it came time to order the replacement memory I just couldn’t resist (the right kind is cheaper anyway) so I’m now waiting on two 512MB sticks. 1.5GB of memory enough for everyone?

I have just seen the film. This entry comprises a spoiler-filled review of it. If you do not know the plot, do not read on. Go and read the book instead.

If you have not seen the film and are intending to go, I strongly recommend that you also go and read the book instead. Especially if you have read the book already, or have any interest in continuity or internal consistency.

Now, read on for the rest of it. I say again, the following is filled with spoilers.
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