rating:
(out of
4 stars)France, United Kingdom; 2005
Directed by Joe Wright; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster; screenplay by Deborah Moggach
Starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Talulah Riley, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Carey Mulligan, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Tom Hollander, Judi Dench
The better, more complete, review will be online very soon.
'Pride & Prejudice' is an entertaining short version of the Jane
Austen-novel. It stars Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet, the beautiful
Rosamund Pike (from 'Die Another Day') as the oldest sister Jane Bennet and
Brenda Blethyn as Mrs. Bennet, the mother of the five Bennet-sisters. The
other three are Mary (Talulah Riley), Lydia (Jena Malone) and Kitty (Carey
Mulligan). The three women I mentioned first are at the heart of this
adaptation, getting the most attention, and the women do a perfect job with
the screen time they are given.
The story is basically about how bad Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to get
married to a rich man. A rich man named Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) is
interested in Jane, and she in him, but both his sister Caroline (Kelly
Reilly) and his best friend Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFayden) disapprove of her.
Not because she is that bad, but her family and her fortune are not that
great. For those who know the story it is no surprise that Mr. Darcy is the
love interest for Elizabeth, although at first they do not like each other
at all.
Knightley finds the right note for Elizabeth in this version, constantly
grinning in a very wicked way. Pike is perfect as Jane, a selfless girl who
always thinks about others more than about herself. Although she is very
quiet, the performance is both sweet and powerful. Blethyn makes her Mrs.
Bennet very entertaining to watch, creating a lot of the comedy. Both Mr.
Collins (Tom Hollander), a family member who wants to marry Elizabeth, and
Mr. Bingley also create a lot of the comedy, from time to time a little over
the top I must add. Donald Sutherland is Mr. Bennet and although he is not
the best thing in this production he is part of two of the best scenes, both
dealing with Elizabeth who is asked to be someones wife.
'Pride & Prejudice' is an adaptation that is nice for the eye. Both the
costumes as the sets look very good. All these things make this movie
something very easy to watch and hide the fact that it is not much more than
a romantic comedy set in an earlier time than today. It lacks the accuracy
that the mini-series from 1995, with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, had. The
novel is probably hard to change into a movie, this is only the second
adaptation of the famous book, especially when you want to keep its running
time close to two hours. I think that is the right thing to do if you want a
larger audience, but maybe not if you want to do the novel justice. Still,
the version is entertaining as it is and maybe that is all it needs to be.