Limp biscuit

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2005)

A bit of a limp biscuit really with an over-abundance of costume and a lack of drama. I thought if Mr. Wright took me on one more panoramic house tour I would become nauseous. Proves beyond a doubt that Austen if suited at all to the screen is best suited to the small screen where talking heads rather than landscapes dominate. Ms. Knightly is far too cute to be believable as an Austen heroine with her pouty lips, toothy grin and not very convincing performance overall. The actual story is compressed in the extreme with a great deal of the nuance wrung out of it. Hence the level of emotional engagement on the part of the audience is significantly reduced. Donald Sutherland, looking like a reject from a rehab program is quite charming as th much put upon Mr. Bennett though his English accent is atrocious. The tour of Darcy's home and Elizabeth's fondling of the statuary was laughable and felt more like a tour of the Elgin Marbles at the BM than a scene in a film. With virtually no dramatic energy underpinning this scene the whole venture suddenly became lost and adrift on a sea of pretty pictures. Perhaps this is the consequence of Mr. Wright having only recently made the leap to the big screen from television where, ironically, this story should have remained. He seems a little overwhelmed by his new toys. "Persuasion" directed by Roger Michel with Amanda Root remains the best film adaptation of an Austen Novel. Both "Sense and Sensibility" and "Mansfield Park" are a close second with this film a distant third.