Mr. Darcy

I just finished my annual viewing of The A and E miniseries Pride and Prejudice. It has now replaced the Wizard of Oz as the movie I watch once a year despite the fact it is six hours long.  ( I prefer the Wizard of Oz slot machines to the movie now anyway.)  I finally got so tired of having 300 channels and nothing to watch  that I made the supreme effort to get up off the sofa, located my boxed dvd set of Pride and Prejudice and fired up the dvd player.

The only reason I watch it annually is to see Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. I first saw him in What a Girl Wants thanks to my daughter, Emily and was immediately struck by the humanity he conveys on screen. He always seems to play a tortured man trying to do the right thing.

I looked him up on Amazon.com and ordered a few movies he was in . From what I learned there his portrayal of Mr. Darcy caused a sensation when this miniseries first aired. It was easy for me to see why. He looked dashing in his 19th century duds, something I can't say for many of the women in the cast. Apparently the laws at that time prohibited women wearing anything that didn't have an empire waist.

I also ordered the Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Advocate at the same time. He played another tortured man in Earring but I can't bear to watch The Advocate again despite the fact that he had a nude scene in it because his wig was so bad.

I try to see everything he is in although I haven't been able to bring myself to watch Bridget Jones Diary. I like Renee Zellweger but she really does need to open her damn eyes at some point! I can't take it.

I love the fact that he is very good looking but doesn't seem to know it. People who are good looking should have the decency to act like they don't realize it. Hasn't nature been unkind to the rest of us already? We don't need beautiful people rubbing it in.  After seeing him looking pudgy in closing credits of Mama Mia where the spandex was unkind to him I don't have to resent him.

Despite the fact the Academy is usually intimidated by British actors he lost the Oscar this year to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. Didn't Mickey Rourke win for the same film last year? An ugly old man trying to make a comeback? And who cares if one played a wrestler and one played a country singer? My point is this: the fact that you're playing a character that hasn't washed his hair in six months does not qualify you for an Oscar any more than that fake nose she wore in The Hours made Nicole Kidman Oscar worthy. (We all know her marriage contract to Tom Cruise demanded she receive one at some point.....the price of silence in Hollywood must be very high.)

I hope I never meet Colin. I would probably be either very disappointed when he turned out to be an ass or I fear I  would immediately turn into Lucy Ricardo and do something ridiculous like break into his house for a souvenir grapefruit, steal his footprints or set my nose on fire.