Enjoyable but needed better direction

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2017)

The performances are good, although tamer than the BBC version, and I was pleasantly surprised by Keira Knightley, who managed not to leave her mouth hanging open too often. Matthew Macfadyen is a good combination of reserved hauteur and feeling, and Donald Sutherland does his best with poor direction - Mr Bennett should not spend his days roaming the farm and chasing round the garden after his family! Either the director did not understand the character or just ignored it, which is a shame. Mrs Bennett is a much more believable age and silly rather than monstrous.
The direction in places is so random you wonder whether the director actually had any real plan before he started! Several scenes start off in one direction then change tack half way. When Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle visit Pemberley the scene begins with them being taken round by the housekeeper - then Elizabeth wanders off so the focus can change to her spying on Darcy and his sister; aunt, uncle and housekeeper are forgotten and presumably have forgotten her.The director was obviously determined to get in a reminder that she loves walking, so off she goes back to the inn - are we seriously supposed to believe the housekeeper forgot about a visitor and her aunt and uncle abandoned her to make her own way back?
Other changes in the film jar - Mr Collins interrupts breakfast to ask for a meeting with Elizabeth; not only highly unlikely, but unnecessary - the book says he finds them alone 'soon after breakfast'; Elizabeth would never be out in public with her hair falling over her shoulders as though she has just got up, Caroline Bingley wears a sleeveless 1799 style dress to the ball when every other character is dressed c 1805- 10. These are disappointing because they suggest a lack of interest in the details of the society the film is trying to portray. Other changes undermine the characters' development: Elizabeth's vital line 'had you behaved in a more gentleman like manner' is left out completely, and the letter scene which is a crucial turning point for Elizabeth is so rushed the significance is lost. Lady Catherine turns up during the night for no good reason, which makes her line 'I see you have a small kind of garden' completely random and meaningless - the next scene has to be done inside instead of the shrubbery!
It was nice to see scenes and characters that were left out of the BBC version, but again too often time is wasted on lingering shots of unimportant details while important characters and events are skated over, giving the impression the director didn't really have a grip on the overall arc of the story and hoped that long shots of characters staring into the distance would give meaning.
Criticisms aside, this is enjoyable to watch and the script is true enough to the book to convey the characters well. I was just left feeling that with a bit more care and forethought this could have been brilliant.