Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, serves as the basis for many, if not all, modern love stories. Though the plot may be heavily disguised, twisted, or otherwise hidden, her novel, in some way, inspired nearly every chick flick ever made. The book itself, prior to the most recent incarnation had been made into four movies (one a Bollywood musical), three miniseries, and two made-for TV movies. Director Joe Wright's version, offers nothing new to viewers, but what he does offer is sharp, funny, and generally entertaining.
Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) wants one of her daughters to marry the “man of considerable fortune†who’s coming to town. At a ball soon after, the man, Mr. Bingley (a charming Simon Woods) takes a liking to the oldest Bennet, Jane (Rosamund Pike). His friend, Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFayden, also playing a brick wall) draws the interest of the second Bennet, Elizabeth (Kiera Knigtley at her sharpest). He feels, though, that she is beneath him, leaving Elizabeth with deep contempt. Mr. Darcy also feels that Jane is beneath Mr. Bingley and engineers a hasty retreat to London to prevent a marriage.
Elizabeth takes a fleeting interest in a soldier, Mr. Wickham (Rupert Friend), who has old ties to Mr. Darcy. She rejects a marriage offer from Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander, providing great comic relief), to the great despair of her mother.
MacFayden’s Mr. Darcy is the only disappointment in the otherwise stellar cast. When next to Woods or Kelly Reilly (as Bingley’s underhanded younger sister, Caroline), MacFayden blends into the background. When next to Knightley, he is far outmatched in every department.
Fortunately for Wright, Knightley has enough charisma for them both, with some to spare. She easily holds her ground against Mr. Darcy’s snobby aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourg (a formidable Dame Judi Dench). In the early ball scene, she outperforms Oscar-nominees Blethyn and Donald Sutherland (Mr. Bennet). Throughout the movie, she shows the fire the made her a standout in Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl.
The movie places you in the middle of 18th century England with excellent costumes and detail. In an interview with WNYC (a New York radio station), Wright spoke of his extensive background research, in an attempt to immerse the movie with a credible periodic setting. “I read a lot of … historical background. I got an idea of the overall social and political world [the characters] were living in.†From the geese running around the Bennets’ yard to the wigs on the servants’ heads, his research shines through. The everyday clothes of the characters look lived in, and the character’s faces reflect the lack of hygiene in the early present in the early 19th century. Not one detail is overlooked, heightening the immersion.
Carriages clatter over cobblestone streets, providing a lush background for the conversations in the Bennet home. The music, too, fits with the time, though the endless repetition of one particular piano theme (first heard when Elizabeth fumbles over the song at the house of Darcy’s aunt Catherine) gets aggravating halfway through the movie.
It’s not often that something so gone over and rehashed as Pride and Prejudice can be as appealing as Wright’s new incarnation. Granted, it leans heavily on the romance of the story, leaving out much of the coming-of-age in Austen’s novel. But he does it well, with a world of help from Knightley’s beautiful, charismatic Elizabeth Bennet. Its fast-paced, light-hearted, and accessible nature lacks the intricacy of Austen’s novel, but makes it open to modern audiences, in the first film to truly capture Austen’s rapier wit.
For more depth, you could watch the three-hour 1995 BBC miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. For gushing, heart-wrenching romance, you can see the 1940 film starring Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier. But for a fun, witty take on Austen’s book, you can’t beat Joe Wright.
"Pride and Prejudice" opens November 11, 2005 and is rated PG13. Drama, Romance. Directed by Joe Wright. Written by Jane Austen (novel), Deborah Moggach (screenplay). Starring Donald Sutherland, Jena Malone, Keira Knightley, Matthew Mcfadyen, Rosamund Pike.
