Very nice, it was everything I was expecting it to be. Very Austen-like, all pretty and romantic, and all the actors were alright in their roles, and I enjoyed it very much.
Not really original, maybe, other than the fact that there was an actual, written list. Other than that, it’s quite the usual story, the dresses, the girls searching for a husband, the gossip, the rich men choosing… and yet this doesn’t mean that it’s not enjoyable, it is well done and likeable, and I liked it.
I’m not sure of the beginning, where were the girls? I thought they were orphans at first, but no, Julia goes to live with her mom and Selina has both parents… so yes, this scene was not clear to me, only that they were in this room together, like a school I guess, and best friends, and promise to write each other very often. And they do, even if they live very different lives. (Unless they were adopted? I don’t know)
Julia is rich and lives in town, while Selina has to work for a living. Last she was a companion to an old lady, until her passing.
Now Julia has set her eyes on rich Mr Malcolm, who already has a reputation for being quite selective. He escorts her to the opera once, and is bored by her vain conversation, and writes her off as unsuitable. When he does not call her again, and then a drawing appears in the paper, a caricature of him with her at the opera and the word Next underneath, she feels humiliated. She asks her cousin Lord Cassidy to find out what she did that was not agreeable to Mr Malcolm, and Cassidy finds out that the man has a list to find the perfect wife: it’s a written list with things like -suitable relatives -artistic talent -good conversationalist, and more.
When he tells Julia all this, she’s enraged.
After thinking about it, she decides she wants vengeance, and she calls her friend Selina to come visit. Selina is not sure, at first, but Julia explains how arrogant and conceited Malcolm is, and how much he hurt her, by paying her attention and then discarding her as nothing. To convince her, Julia has to call on their friendship, and Selina agrees. Reluctantly, but she agrees.
Julia’s plan is to present him with the perfect wife, since she now knows what’s written on that list, thanks to Cassidy, and then when he proposes, present him with her own list. Simple.
But the night Julia plans to introduce her, Selina and Malcolm meet by themselves, without knowing the other’s identity, and kinda hit it off.
When Cassidy then makes introductions, he asks to see her again, and while watching some paintings, they hear women gossiping about him. Selina comments on his reputation, and the way he treated Julia, but when he explains that he only took her out once and never promised her anything, she wonders if she made too big a deal out of it. Still, Julia is hurt, and the plan goes on.
Selina also meets Captain Ossory, the nephew of the old woman she worked for. He starts to court her too, because this was his aunt’s last wish in a letter, but the more they all know each other, and the more he is captivated by Julia.
For the most part, Selina is just herself. They only have to lie a couple of times, because Selina has a very loud relative, the widow of a cousin or something, and because she has no artistic talent, so they pretend that she can play the piano while it’s Cassidy instead.
Things go on so well, that he sends invitation for a big ball at his mother’s house, inviting her parents too. His mother likes Selina very much, and he is so smitten now that says it doesn’t matter when he learns that Mrs Covington is actually related to her.
Still, Julia hasn’t forgotten, and urges Selina to do it now, but she doesn’t want to, she likes him. So Julia does it herself. She has her maid lock Selina in a room, and then she hands him her own list after he proposes, while she’s dressed as Selina.
The lie doesn’t last long, because Selina freed herself, and they all meet each other by the stairs. Julia now cries, tells him, and the all, how hurt she was, how humiliated, and tells about their plan, and this Jeremy Malcolm doesn’t want to hear anything more, the fact that Selina started out with her plan is enough for him.
Julia then apologises to Selina. Once things have calmed down, I guess it’s the next day, Julia explains how sorry she is, because if at first she had been hurt by his cold dismissal, later she had been jealous that she ‘succeeded where she had failed’. The two girls make peace, but with Malcolm it’s not so easy.
When they both receive notes to meet in the garden, as he sees her he accuses her of trying to trap him in a marriage, and is quite unpleasant, so she gets angry and storms out.
When selina packs to go back home, his mother tells him that it was her, she sent those notes, because she is sure that Selina’s feelings were true, and sh tells him that he wrote that list as a sort of shield, because everyone wanted to marry him for his money and position, and that list enabled him to keep his distance or something.
Finally he runs out after her, to stop her going away. She’s already going, so he rides a horse until he stops her, and apologises, and proposes, and she accepts. The end.
The ending credits are also quite nice, with here and there some drawings/caricatures of what will happen, like “Mr Malcolm finally finds his bride, Miss Selina Dalton from the country”, and then Julia accepting Henry, and “tensions with France as Louis XVIII decrees Uncivil Merriment”, and their double wedding in Sussex, and the two girls pregnant, and Mrs Covington marrying again, while Lord Cassidy wins “equine beauty contest” on a horse, he who was afraid of them…
Julia’s footman also gets married, and is gifted a house.
Julia Thistlewaite - Zawe Ashton
Mr Malcolm - Sopé Dirisu
Selina Dalton - Freida Pinto
Lord Cassidy - Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Captain Henry Ossory - Theo James
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