Unleashing Mr. Darcy: Movie Review

Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate link(s). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Unleashing Mr. Darcy

Runtime-1hr 24min

Air date- January 23rd, 2016

Director- David Winning

Writers- Teena Booth, Teri Wilson

Filming locations- Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

Where to watch- Rent/buy on Prime Video or stream Hallmark Movies Now on Prime Video Channels

Starring Cindy Busby as Elizabeth Scott and Ryan Paevey as Donovan Darcy

Source

Summary

The movie starts with Elizabeth Scott and the contrived trouble at a private school where she is a teacher. The problem, Elizabeth trying to help a student in her class struggling academically, and the student’s father manipulates a situation to get Elizabeth fired. With her hands tied, she is offered to help Gabrielle Barrow show her Border Terriers as work. Elizabeth, fond of dogs, dog shows, and her own Cavalier, (which she also shows) takes up on the offer and does well, despite one factor. The Judge Donovan Darcy.

Without self-reflection on her behavior, Elizabeth is quick to jump to conclusions about Donovan’s character. Which causes her to get herself into goofs and insert herself into drama. The more she tells herself and everyone around her how much she is repelled by Mr. Darcy, the more immature and obsessive-like behavior, accumulates within her. Until she admits that she does in fact, quite fancies him.

“First Impressions”

I do like watching Hallmark Jane Austen-inspired adaptations and the curiosity of how they portray characters and plots with a modern set with a specific topic. This one is focused on the dogs, and the world of dog shows with some dog breeding.

The Characters:

Now with my personal and fun favorite trying to figure out the characters.

We have of course Elizabeth Scott as Elizabeth Bennet and Donovan Darcy as Mr. Darcy.

Violet Darcy played by Frances Fisher as Lady Catherine. Who I thought was written and portrayed as an excellent villain and compared to Jane Austen’s Lady Catherine did justice.

Jenna Scott played by Tammy Gillis as Jane Bennet, and Ryan Robson played by Ryan Kennedy as Charles Bingley. Both did well with their wholesome characters.

Zara Darcy is played by Sarah Desjardins as Georgiana Darcy. A character change, Zara is Donovan’s sister, but not the shy and reserved as Georgiana’s character. Instead bold and honest, which I think worked well for this movie.

Felicity Robson is played by Courtney Richter as Caroline Bingley. Again, like with Violet Darcy, was a great “bad guy” and jealous rival for Elizabeth.

Linda Scott played by Lini Evans as Mrs. Bennet, has a small short role in this movie, but embarrassing enough to justly compare equally.

Last we have Gabrielle Barrow played by Elizabeth McLaughlin, who I believe portrayed Mrs. Gardiner. A lovely character that rooted for Elizabeth and Darcy’s union.

Mr. Darcy

Donovan Darcy, unlike the original Mr. Darcy who started rudely in manner, this Mr. Darcy was a gentleman consistently throughout the film. He did comment on Elizabeth’s tardiness at their first interaction but there was nothing to assume that it was meant to be condescending. It was true, that Elizabeth was late. It was shortly later revealed that he confided in Zara that he thought Elizabeth was rude to him (which she was). Zara spilled this information immediately to Elizabeth when they both formally met. 

There were moments when I watched this movie that I stopped and thought the way the actor Ryan Paevey was speaking. He always started his sentences in a strong serious type way and the tonality and tessitura of his voice was the same pattern every single sentence he spoke. I thought it either that it might have been an attempt to portray the serious and cold Mr. Darcy. Or if that is just how the actor spoke. After the movie, I did look up a few interviews of the actor and no, he doesn’t speak like that. And it was safe to assume that it was an attempt to create Mr. Darcy’s character to be like Jane Austen’s original.

Elizabeth

I was surprised. In the very beginning, Elizabeth was a good character, you felt for her in the situation and how it was unfair. But the second she met Donovan, she was absolutely rude and extremely quick to judge every little thing he did. Not only that but continued to be constantly rude to him the second he entered the same room as her.

I would have justified it as fair if Donovan was ever rude to her. But he wasn’t and even if she misunderstood what he might have said, nothing he said was warrant for her behavior towards him. Her rudeness eventually died down. But it turned into this almost teenage angst type of behavior. And for a few moments the interactions between Donovan and Elizabeth felt like watching two high schoolers fall in love. I found it to be weird and cringe. The most prevalent scene that comes to mind is when she takes Gabrielle’s dogs to the groomer and bumps into Donovan while she is there. I don’t know… they are two adults, portraying two adults. The scene threw me off even though it was to show them ‘falling in love.’

Theme

In terms of finding the theme of Jane Austen’s novel and applying it to this movie. I would not say both would be equally matched. I did see a lot of prejudices in this movie. Still, it was heavily with Elizabeth making continuous ill assumptions about Donovan with absolutely nothing to support or back her claims. Luckily, she did apologize when she did know his true character and thankfully gave her a redeeming arc.

In terms of finding pride, it may be a stretch, but Elizabeth’s consistent rudeness and prejudice could be an attempt (a failed attempt) to protect her threatened pride. It is a hallmark movie, and there is no intention to undermine that at all. I do feel that might be a stretch.

So I do feel like the portrayal of the theme in the movie was iffy. They seem to mostly focus all of it on Elizabeth for the faults. I can say there was some on Donovan’s side as well, but they weren’t strong, and they made Donovan ‘too good’ and just occasionally misunderstood what he said.

Final Thoughts

Despite being weirded out at some points of the movie, and having a few moments of telling Elizabeth via the television screen to “leave Donovan alone” and “back off and chill out,” I thought the movie was charming.

There were other flaws aside from the main characters that I mentioned. Some of them were how the dog shows were held. Not very realistic compared to a real dog show, but I do not want to harp upon it because I understood it was set up for the plot.

There was another scene where two things happened that I thought were weird. Or at least I was taken aback.

There is a pool scene where everyone is at the pool modestly dressed, except Donovan. He had nothing on except very short swim trunks, almost a speedo-type swimwear. The sight of the actor, well, I have nothing to complain about. Just the scene composition made him stand out of place. Also in this scene, they have Donovan and Felicity hold each other’s arms in a very intimate way. It’s weird to say but they were almost holding each other. Plus the display made it look like a couple. Which through the context was supposed to look like that, even though it wasn’t true. I just thought the interaction was way too intimate for ‘just friends’ to touch each other like that. Those two events in the scene just seemed very forced.

With all that, the most important question stands. Would I watch this again? Yes.

Check out my movie review for the sequel of Unleashing Mr. Darcy: Marrying Mr. Darcy

Love dogs? Check out these other posts:

Regency Era Animals: Dogs

Regency Era Animals: Man’s Best Friend