Pride and Prejudice Review

Here's my in-depth review of Pride and Prejudice (probably too in-depth for the interest span of most of my readers, but what the hey.) I'd be interested to hear any comments, rebuttals, whatever. I fully realize that I'll get these probably only from Caitlin or Sarah, but the invitation to all is there.

Let me start out by saying that, on the whole, I think the film was a good adaptation. The camera work was really fun, although occasionally I did wish that they would focus a little bit more. Literally. The scenery was gorgeous, and they did a nice job of fitting all the important plot points in without making it feel rushed (of course, that could be because I already knew everything that was coming. I think it was good though.)

I think that they should have switched the actors who played Lydia and Kitty. Kitty seemed far more stupid than Lydia most of the time, with the only exception being when Lydia came back with Wickham. Also, I found that Mary wasn't really plain. she just wasn't as made up as the others. That's like the trick in movies where they turn the "nerd" into the beauty queen, but really all they did was take off her glasses and brush her hair.

The parent's relationship was interesting in this one. The dad wasn't so bitter and tired, but not as funny, and the mom wasn't nearly as annoying. She came off more as sweet, but somewhat dumb. I liked her more in this one, but I think some of her lines didn't come off quite as well without the obnoxious personality. I didn't like the new dad as much as I liked the new mom. I don't think he had a good grasp of the character at all. I never got a good feel for who he really was. Also, Donald Sutherland freaks me out when he smiles. His teeth are freakishly white.

I liked how the new Jane was played. Not that she was better than the A&E Jane, but given the time contraints this Jane was facing, i think she did a good job. She was also very pretty, probably the prettiest of the bunch, in my opinion, which fits well with the book. Bingley seemed to be pretty good in this one, but with some moronic tendencies. He seemed a little out of it at times, and wasn't as in control of himself as I would expect Bingley the king of pleasant manners to be. On the whole though, he still had that pleasant Bongley-esque air about him.

I thought Mr. Collins was played well and quite differently than the A&E version. This one wasn't quite so obsequious and more self-righteous, and it worked pretty well. I enjoyed this Lady Catherine de Bourgh also. Oh, and when did Miss darcy turn from a shy girl into a little minx? apparently the past few years have been good to her self confidence.

I had mixed feelings about Keira Knightley as Elizabeth. In the beginning of the movie, she seemed a bit too impish for my tastes. Yes, Elizabeth is happy and likes to laugh, but she generally has a reason when she laughs. I didn't really get that impression until about 15 minutes into the movie. For the first quarter hour, my impression of Keira laughing was suspiciously like the crazy person laughter. So there was that. Also, now I think Keira Knightley is absolutely beautiful, but they really didn't play that up in this movie. I thought she looked kind of drab throughout the whole movie. I think they were trying to give the impression that she was above such things, kind of like when they started out the movie with her reading a book, like it's an integral part of her personality. That's not really Elizabeth. she's not above trying to look nice, and I think she reads a book only twice in the entire novel, both times because she's got nothing else to do. So I think they were trying to make her a little too perfect. This also happened with the whole Wichkam thing. In this movie, Elizabeth never really got the chance to get herself into a hole the way she does in the novel by going overboard in her support of Wickham. In this movie, she seemed justified in what she thought about Wickham, and then changed her mind right when she heard the truth. That's not much of a self-revelation about her own blindness. Just saying "I was blind" doesn't cut it.

As for the whole, Elizabeth/Darcy relationship, I thought they did a great job of showing the attraction between the two, though I've got to question whether there really was that much attraction in the beginning. I guess they kind of had to do it in the movie though, since there wasn't time to develop it slowly over time. I didn't personally find that much to love about Mr. Darcy, which leads me to think something was missing in his performance, though I can't quite place what it was. I'm pretty ambivalent about the last scene. I don't think it particularly adds much to the movie to do it that way, and it seemed out of place, or rather out of character when compared to the rest of the movie. However, I do realize that every film adaptation apparently has to take some sort of liberties, like A&E and wet-shirt Colin Firth. So, take that for what you will.