Pride and Prejudice and Cancer: Review of Lizzy and Jane

Another Pride & Prejudice remake! Because I love them so. 🙂

This is an older, pared down version of Pride & Prejudice. When Lizzy was a teenager, her mother died of cancer, and Lizzy reacted by running and forgetting her pain in a demanding career as a chef. But recently she’s lost the magic, so her boss brings in a new chef to support her and save the kitchen. Lizzy feels replaced, so she takes some time off in an attempt to find her lost magic, and goes home–to, surprise, her sister Jane who is battling cancer. Though she desperately wants to flee, Lizzy stays, and tries to help by making meals her sister can eat–despite the treatment’s side effects that suppress appetite and damage taste buds. If she can succeed at this one thing, give this gift to her sister, Lizzy won’t feel like such a failure. It isn’t an easy path, and she’ll have to face down her past before she can move forward.

Though this wouldn’t land on my favorite P&P remakes of all time list, it’s a solid example. The characters present make up for the ones lost, and Jane and Lizzy’s relationship feels very real. More combative that their namesakes, they struggle to reconnect, and that struggle keeps you hoping for a happy ending. A little sad, there’s a good bit about cancer and dying, but it isn’t all about loss. There’s plenty of love and family and the dreams that people strive for. The Mr. Darcy character takes a bit of a backseat to all this family drama, but he is present, and certainly shares some traits with the original character. Overall, this isn’t a light and fun romance, but it is an emotion exploration of family and love.