Pride And Prejudice (2005)

Synopsis: Hertfordshire, late 1790s. Mrs Bennett (Brenda Blethyn) is desperate to find suitable (that is, rich) husbands for her five daughters. When wealthy Mr Bingley (Simon Wood) moves into a nearby mansion it seems like eldest daughter, Jane (Rosamund Pike), has caught his eye. Second daughter, the proud and independent-minded Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) is courted by the dull Reverend Collins (Tom Hollander), a Bennett cousin who, being male, is set to inherit the Bennett estate, but Lizzie will have no part of it. Then the taciturn Mr Darcy (Matthew McFadyen) comes into her life and she learns that appearances can be deceiving.

Thanks to the overall improvements in film technology this version of Jane Austen's classic novel gains immeasurably over the 1940 Greer Garson/Laurence Olivier interpretation. The rich colour photography and roving camera of Roman Osin combined with the superb production values and picturesque locations brings Austen’s world alive in a way that was simply impossible for the early studio-bound version to do. (I had not seen the 1995 version at the time of writing this review).

But it is not simply on the technical front that the film improves on its predecessor. Whilst staying essentially faithful to Austen’s narrative, screenwriter Deborah Moggach (Emma Thompson also gets a credit for dialogue) takes a more creative approach to the text and corrects the fundamental failing of the earlier film, that of not paying enough attention to the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy Indeed, director Joe Wright, remarkably, making his feature film debut (he has some BAFTA-winning TV work under his belt), with the help of composer Dario Marianelli gives it a full blown romantic screen treatment.

Whilst the earlier version with its emphasis on the "parlour games" aspects of the novel has qualities that are more suited to our view of the times depicted there is no doubt that this is a more effective film with Knightley. although a little too obviously gorgeous to count as plausibly "tolerable" in anyone's estimation, much more convincing than Garson as Austen’s heroine. MacFadyen’s portrayal of Darcy however seems unnecessarily sullen only showing some measure of animation towards the film’s end although perhaps, much like Olivier, his performance suffers from the fact that the character is essentially seen through Elizabeth’s eyes and has little autonomy. Simon Wood also seemed unduly boyish and his appeal to Jane or, for that matter, to the humorless, older Darcy not apparent. To a significant extent these are issues with Austen’s novel with its focus on Elizabeth and a little more filling-in of the support characters would have helped.

Even if these issues intrude somewhat, the overall effect is a highly rewarding rendition of Austen’s much-loved story of pride and prejudice.

FYI: The film afforded a screen debut for Carey Mulligan who would work in television thereafter until her breakout role in Lone Scherfig's An Education (2009) 

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