Malcolm's List and Miss Lattimore's Letter

I have not returned to the movie theater since COVID (went rarely beforehand) but continue to read reviews. Years ago, I watched Siskel and Ebert. Now, I got to the movie review site in his honor. There seem to be a lot of films out there, many these days available on demand right away.

Some of them eventually show up on DVD and on cable. Malcolm's List is now available on cable or whatever Verizon-FIOS might be.  I saw a bit of it on television first, but read the book before watching more of the film.  The author (years after writing the book) wrote the screenplay.  

The book is a somewhat bemused take on Regency romances and Jane Austen (Miss Lattimore's Letter, a later book, directly references Austen, the books taking place around 1817) Wikipedia notes that the book was self-published (in 2009) and the script was later discovered when it received a good rating on a review survey.  The film itself was released last year.  So, there was a long lag time in development here.

I actually read the second book as well (the two available in the NYPL system) and enjoyed it as well.  The conceit of the first book is that a rich bachelor has a list that he uses to determine the suitableness of possible wives.  It gets him in some trouble when he insults (unwittingly) a lady, who uses a schoolmate of hers to try to gain revenge.  

She plans to use her friend to tempt the man by having her meet his approval. Then, she will spring a list of the lady, and show he doesn't meet her approval.  Unfortunately,  the two are a perfect match, and much of the plot of the book is more of a basic romance. It all turns out well and is pleasant though I think it was a tad bit padded in the middle.  

(The other book seems a bit padded, but the tone and characters were playful and fun enough that overall it was quite forgivable. I think it would be an enjoyable film as well.)  

I only saw half of the film so far but overall think it is an even better form of the story than the book. A charm is to watch the story which is put together in a picture-perfect way.  And, the actors (the film has a twist where some of the key players are people of color while one of their cousins is white)  are all very good.  Finally, the story so far is largely the same with a few little edits that are for the best.  An enjoyable film.

ETA: The preview summarizes the film rather well.