Happy Jane Austin's Birthday!

Today is Jane Austin's 230th birthday. One of my co-workers saw me reading my 7-in-1 volume (yes, it's pretty thick) of Jane Austin's novels and realized I was a fellow fan, and today she sent me an e-mail about Jane Austin that talks about her life in honor of her birthday, etc... So, today is a good day to write about the new Pride and Prejudice movie which I saw this week.
I liked it very much, though having re-read the book recently, I noticed lots of changes. But there is no way a 2-hour movie can follow a 220 page book. I have heard that the 6-hour version does, but I have not seen it.
The acting was excellent, the scenery was beautiful, and the movie seemed more realistic than the other Jane Austin books-turned-movies that have come out lately. Not that I really know how it was in 19th century England, it just seemed that way to me.
Of course when you read a book, you imagine and picture characters a certain way, and in a movie they are often protrayed differently. For me, that happened with characters like Mr. Collins, Mr. Bennet, and Mary. I imagined Mr. Collins as a little more jolly, Mr. Bennet as more sarcastic and quick-witted, and Mary as more proud and less sensitive. Georgianna Darcy was definitely too outgoing and friendly, and I don't picture Bingley being so silly and awkward. I also imagined Mr. Darcy as more strikingly handsome than the actor they chose, but the guy definitely grows on you during the movie. And it's not about the looks anyway.
Because of time, a few characters went a little under-developed like Caroline Bingley (not to mention her sister who was left out). She had very little interaction with Jane in the movie, while the book displays her (and her sister's) hypocrisy of being Jane's best friend one minute and backstabbing her the next. Another unfortunate exclusion was the vindictive pleasure that Elizabeth gets from the intended match between Darcy and Anne DeBourgh. That is not mentioned until almost the end so Elizabeth can't really enjoy imagining them married (which she only does until she stops hating him, that is).
My last regret is that the comments about Elizabeth's "fine eyes" were missing along with the signature opening line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fourtune, must be in want of a wife." I guess it would be impossible to include that line without a narrator, and that would have been cheesy.
So, in all, it is a great movie. I'm sure it will come out on DVD sometime around my birthday in April if anyone cares. Oh, wait, I don't have a DVD player. Never mind.
Oh, has anyone noticed the coincedence with the names of the actresses they pick for these movies? Elinor in Sense and Sensibility was played by Emma Thompson and this movie starred Kiera Knightley as Elizabeth. Hmmm...