Movie Review: Pride and Prejudice
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Movie title: Pride & Prejudice Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFayden, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, Judi Dench, Jena Malone, Simon Woods Joe Wright Drama, Romance |
Call me skeptical. As a die-hard fan of the 5-hour BBC version of Pride and Prejudice
featuring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, you can hardly blame me for thinking it impossible for capturing the scope of the story in a mere two-hours. After having seen the new film, I can fairly say it does not capture the scope of the entire story, but this new Pride & Prejudice
can certainly hold its own grounds.
This 18th century costume drama runs on a pace to match that of a modern suspense, but settles down comfortably enough. For those less familiar with the classic story, the film centers on the Bennets, a family with 5 daughters who face a life of poverty upon their father’s death. Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) dedicates her life existence to marrying off her daughters. The film opens as a young man of good fortune, Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods), moves into the county and quickly takes a liking to the eldest of the Bennet girls, Jane (Rosamund Pike). Around the same time, the second eldest, Lizzie (Keira Knightley), takes a strong disliking to Mr. Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFayden) who finds her too plain to tempt him. As the story progresses, Lizzie finds herself drawn to Mr. Wickham, a man who claims to be wronged by Darcy in the past, and the object of Mr. Colins, the foolish-minded heir of the Bennet estate. Ultimately, it is a love story between Lizzie and Darcy, one about overcoming prejudices and class barriers to reveal the true characters of two people who were meant for each other. Of course, we rush through it too fast to get that much, but it was an honest attempt.
What saves the film is the fact that director Joe Wright focuses far less on the theatrical absurdities of the story but instead takes a much more sensitive approach to the characters. The script lacks wit and is the low point of the film, but Wright makes up for it by brilliantly playing with the nuances of its characters and situations, especially in terms of their resulting awkwardness. Most of the film resides purely within the subtleties of every character, something which no other adaptation of the novel has accomplished to date.
The tone of the film is refreshing. There is a certain raw beauty in its cinematography, something Hollywood films consistently lack. Everything from the overexposed exteriors, to the stray farm animals, or the stringy curls of Keira Knightley’s hair adds to a certain realism of the English countryside.
For the fans of the BBC production who were wondering – yes, the film is as sexually tame as the BBC; no, you will not see Mr. Darcy emerging from a pond dripping wet; yes, Keira Knightley is a convincing Lizzie; no, Matthew MacFayden is not as good as Colin Firth (He keeps reminding me of a young Alan Rickman for some reason). The film lacks the intricacies of the BBC miniseries and skips out on many of the subplots, which is hardly unexpected given the length of the film. Minor characters such as Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, Mary King, and Mariah Lucas were left out completely.
The film is a worthwhile effort but, in the end, Wright attempted to capture more that a mere two hours would allow. I enjoyed the BBC version over this one, but, to be fair, if you take away comparisons to previous versions, this film on its own proves to be a beautifully delicate interpretation of Jane Austen’s masterpiece.
In General:
B Movie
A- Performance
C- Script
A Love Story
C+ Execution of Love Story