Ida regénye

The version I saw of this movie at Prime Video this weekend was dubbed in English, so captions or subtitles weren't needed. Lip movement wise it was a good dubbing job, yet the voices of everyone seemed odd and too much like they were reading the dialogue, which of course they were.

Ida was sent to a convent as a young girl after her mother died. When she was supposed to get out, she was told she must stay another year to teach. Now that year is over, she is being told by the Mother Superior she needs to join their order and stay forever. They are interested in the dowry they will receive from her wealthy father, since she will never marry as a nun, and her father does not want her back home.

She does not want to and fortunately finds a way to get tossed out. Her father is shocked to see her and she is shocked to see what is going on in his house. Wild women dancing on the tables, and her father has a fiance who is a year younger than Ida. Ida says she cannot stay there under those conditions, so her father places and ad in the newspaper to marry her off. He is choosy about who he picks, however, and tells her she can get a divorce after the first year of marriage, and then can live alone. As a single woman who never married, she could not do so.

She ends up marrying an artist who needs the money. He is nice looking, well-behaved and apparently has a good family name. He and Ida live together, but agree not to actually be husband and wife. They will divorce after a year. Ida is very sweet and naive, but still quite intelligent. Is this movie a comedy? Not really, in my opinion, except for the maid Kati. Yet it is endearing and old-fashioned and had a nice ending.

I came into this film knowing nothing about the premise. I was swept quickly into the story and the main character due to the way that women were supposed to be either confined to a convent or society's idea of servitude by an arranged marriage through the eldest male in the family.

Our heroine throws off both of these ideas by quickly being expelled by her convent that her father placed her in at the age of 6, and returns to her ancestral home. Her father places an ad in the local paper in order to find her a husband and the rest of the film sorts out the rest.

Our heroine definitely has a mind of her own and lays out her conditions for this "marriage" and many humorous moments transpire as the young couple get to know each other.

Definitely listen to this movie in the original language of Magyar with the English subtitles to fully appreciate the subtleties and nuances of this film.

It has a really nice amtosphere, great directing and there is a lot of chemistry between the main charachters. The "from hate to love" story itself never gets old and it still has accuracy for the 21th century, even though the original novel was written a hundred years ago. The movie has good dramaturgy, the romance is well build up and we can see step by step the path that brings the two main characters together. So all together it is really enjoyable, fun and heartwarming movie, the actors doing their best, everything is well made in it. I highly recommend for anyone who is into that kind of romance trope, period drama's and Jane Austen adaptations.

Not enough (emotional or material) stakes for the audience to feel connected. Perhaps if one or both leads can be made a bit more likable, more witty or kind, for example, we'd feel invested.

Misunderstanding dragged out for way too long. I can understand given it's a remake of an older work, but even then, something like Shop Around the Corner is much more refreshing for this kind of plot.

The set is beautiful. But the actors could also be a bit more natural.

On my quest for more historic dramas, I came across this movie some time ago, and now that I have seen it I am sad, first because it took me so long to watch it, and second because I can't watch it for the first time all over again, (though I'll likely re-watch it soon).

The relaxing flow of this whole movie, the pretty music, with it's adorable characters, both trying to understand the other. I wish I knew the language so I might read the original book to glimpse the story from that point of view.

If you like sweet, silly, classic and yet a little sorrowful stories, you might enjoy this like I did.