James McAvoy Slobber

Have you too been wading your way through the New York Times' Summer movie preview? Tons o' content in there, from articles about big blockbusters like Knocked Up to indie fare such as Parker Posey's Fay Grim. Cinecultist particularly enjoyed Karen Durbin's fawning over James McAvoy. Pretty boys who read obviously make her a bit weak in the knees, and really, who is the Cinecultist to judge on that front?

CC enjoyed McAvoy a ton in everything we've seen him in from The Last King of Scotland to the BBC Shakespeare update Macbeth. He has an effortless sexiness that doesn't so much make him a pin-up as an intriguing prospect. CC recently saw and enjoyed a preview of Becoming Jane, the fictionalizing of Jane Austen's life wherein McAvoy plays her love interest Tom Lefroy opposite Anne Hathaway.

Durbin does a good job picking out why McAvoy is interesting in this movie, which is essentially lit porn for those of us who can't get enough of Miss Austen.

"The payoff comes in a scene featuring the rich uncle with whom Lefroy lives in London. Played by Ian Richardson (in what turned out to be his last performance), he’s a hanging judge who reveres property and takes satisfaction in eliminating the poor, one neck at a time. Lefroy is expecting a visit from Jane. When the door knocker sounds, Mr. McAvoy expresses Lefroy’s exuberance by sliding down the banister to answer it. Whereupon Mr. Richardson, perfectly in character, looks at him as if he has suddenly become some sort of unidentifiable but repellent insect."

Durbin's right, that is a good and surprising moment. Also interesting is McAvoy's insistence in the article that even though the movie is intended for someone who say, lovingly owns the box set of Colin Firth's Pride and Prejudice, he didn't want to play it totally straight. "I didn’t like the script, I was afraid Lefroy would be too Darcy, and [director Julian Jarrold] said I could play with that image, and that interested me.” Go on McAvoy, keep it real kid.