Pride And Prejudice

[Split Infinitive]

I hope it's not improper for me to jump in with my review of the film.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

I promised myself that before I saw any film adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, I would first read the book.  With the release of 2005's very modern telling of the classic tale, I hastened my endeavor and devoured the book inside of a week.  Now I'm faced with an incurable dilemma: attempting to evaluate the film on its own merit rather than on the basis of its comparison to the delightful novel on which it is based.

Frankly, it's impossible.  You don't read a novel that good and dismiss it when the tagline touts the film as "the greatest love story of all time."  They're banking on name recognition at the very least; at best, they're blatantly appealing to the enormous base of avid Austen fans.
Working in the film's favor is the fact that I am not an Austen scholar (though I'm eagerly working my way through her oeuvre).  Thus, my book-to-film comparisons are not as finely tuned as they probably should be.  Which does not necessarily work in the film's favor, since, as an adaptation, it's rather shallow.  If it weren't for the British accents and period costumes, I'd say this was an American romantic comedy.

Simple premise: the five Bennett sisters are of marrying age in the early 1800s, and, being women in the early 1800s, their only prospects for financial security lie with finding good husbands.  When a rich gentleman moves into a nearby manor, and enchants Jane (Rosamund Pike), the reserved, eldest Bennett daughter, all that stands in her way of happiness is the poor position of her family and perhaps their manners.

She's in love with Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods), and he's in love with her.  Everyone knows it except them.  Well, also except for Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen), a rude, exorbitantly rich landowner who has made the mistake of insulting Elizabeth Bennett (Keira Knightley), the only girl in the country, apparently, willing to look Darcy in the eye and show him the sharp side of her tongue.  Conventionally, you know that these two, who start on the worst of terms, fall in love with each other and surmount various obstacles—both internal and external—before acknowledging their true feelings.  Classic opposites-attract/meet-cute setup.  Except it predates Nora Ephron by approximately 200 years.  So why is it that this thoroughly English 19th-century romantic comedy feels whittled-down and warmed-over for the undiscerning palette of your average American audience?

Not to cast stones, but the vast majority of rom-coms don't aspire to anything higher than to provide a twist in the formula, a few bittersweet moment, and a happy ending.  Fantasy fluff all the way.  Some are better than others, and some achieve greatness or offer some insights and substance along with the diversion.  This new version of Pride and Prejudice falters considerably in the latter department.

Being an Austen adaptation, it cannot help but retain some resonant themes of class struggle and women's position in society... But it does so little with them.  Lizzie and Darcy exchange heated glances and verbal barbs while the milieu, rather than being integral to the overall story, serves as a mere backdrop.  Secondary characters are delightful, but instead of using them to their fullest potential (as Austen does in her novel), screenwriter Deborah Moggach and Joe Wright (making his feature film directorial debut) sprinkle them liberally throughout the piece as they might appear in any Richard Curtis film.  As Mr. Bennett, Donald Sutherland is at his sardonic, benevolent best, a nice change from the usual stinker roles he tends to play these days.  Paul Simon lookalike Tom Hollander is equally arresting as the ostentatious sycophant Mr. Collins, who arrives to seek the hand of Miss Bennett (any Miss Bennett) in marriage to please his vile, snobbish patroness, the Lady Catherine de Bourg, who is played by Judi Dench with the same commanding verve she brings to every such character.

In some ways, Knightley and MacFadyen are perfectly cast.  She's pretty, and he's dark and brooding, but not without Clive Owenish charm.  Both are swept along by the relentless pace of the film (a stylistic no-no that barely gives us a chance to breathe, as if it were slapping a sleek corset on us and lacing the strings), so instead of convincingly growing to know and love each other, these lifelike characters seems shoehorned into a breakneck plot that takes advantage of pretty vistas and witty dialogue lifted verbatim from Austen's masterpiece.

Nagging at that suspicious little corner of my mind is the leery thought that the makers of Pride and Prejudice knew that, with such strong source material, they did not need to do a great job—merely a competent one.  It's the kind of mass-marketing mentality that sells tickets to weary audiences in desperate need of true quality's glimmer, if not the gem itself.  Pride and Prejudice is polished, and full of sparkling romance and wit, but it goes down almost a little too easy.  You've swallowed it before you've had a chance to savor the taste.  Such is the privation endured when consuming microwaveable Austen.

[modage]

i also liked this, though not quite as much as some, it's still a feat considering the source material.  i had also just watched Ang Lee's Sense & Sensibility earlier this week and improbably enjoyed that film as well.  though like GT i might have even preferred this one.  between Domino and this film i appreciate seeing the range keira knightley is capable of.  somewhat predictably my girlfriend liked this even better than i did.

[Thrindle]

L'il Spoiler...

My favorite scene was when Lizzie and Darcy are dancing, and suddenly there is no one in the room but them.  I'm such a sap when it comes to romance, and that part was actually a bit thrilling.   

[sheshothim]

the only part i DIDN'T like was darcy's sister. i read the book, and that's not what she's supposed to look like......but that's just me being picky.

[polkablues]

As is often the case with me, I only just got around to seeing this.  I honestly thought it was fantastic.  Unlike the stageiness of so many Austen adaptations, this actually felt like a real movie.  Plus it mostly avoided the period-movie pitfall of the actors all secretly thinking "listen to how adorable we are with our old-timey dialogue!"  It was like really naturalistic actors doing Shakespeare; as long as you're conveying the meaning of the dialogue accurately, the actual content of the lines can be almost anything.

All the actors were good, special points to Donald Sutherland and Jena Malone for having way more fun with the material than anyone else.  I had only seen Matthew Macfayden before on the odd episode of "MI5", and he really impressed me in this.  Almost like a British Peter Sarsgaard, the way he able to convey so much depth without ever really changing his expression or vocal inflection.

Good flick, all the way around.  Makes me look forward to Joe Wright's next movie, "Atonement", in which Matthew Macfayden and Keira Knightley pair up again.  And it makes me wish I had watched it with a girl, because I totally would have gotten lucky.