A different take and just as valid. Knightley comes of age as a great actress

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2005)

My wife and I are longtime Austen fans. She owns the 1940 film (Greer Garson as Elizabeth), 1980 BBC (Susan Garvie) and 1995 version.
I like other reviewers found this to be a refreshing version with a different take on 'Pride and Prejudice'. It is tightly edited which leads to a fast-pace, sometimes frenetic, necessary to fit the book in a relatively short film. You have to keep up, but the information is there - sometimes not spoken. The film focuses much more on Elizabeth - she is in almost every scene or nearby and it is very much shot from her perspective and on the basis of her interactions. You don't know instant to instant what is happening to others not present, but only know as much as she does.
What is there to say except all the versions stand on their own, even the modest earlier BBC version obviously shot on Betacam with limited budget - seek it out for a charming characterisation of Lizzie and a haughty but warmly human Mr Darcy.
It is fair to say Keira's Lizzie is not the Lizzie of Jennifer Ehle which worked for TV, but an equally valid alternate-universe film version which is more enigmatic and darker. Her characteristic smile actually becomes Lizzie. Keira's does not detract from Jennifer's.
There is a rustic earthiness to late 18th c. Longbourn (SP?) probably more accurate than the Regency feel of the surrounds and manners of the 1995 version. Sutherland is and always has been a genius and brings a fecklessness and late middle-aged resignation to Bennet while retaining his intelligence, and Blethyn brings some human believability to the character of Mrs Bennet rather than being a two-dimensional cartoon. That is not a criticism of Alison Steadman - she played the character on TV she was given believably and well.
That is what film characterisation is about to me. Again, different to the earlier film and TV versions but no less valid. Chatsworth was Austen's inspiration for Pemberley and is no less magnificent in film than in person. The settings are also sparse but speak volumes about the social separations of the De Bourghs, Darcys, Collins and Bennets.
I found the changes to the story and character omissions worked to tidy the film, not necessary as they are in the book which needs them for colour. So much is shown in small vignettes, the movements and juxtaposition of the actors as well as their acting conveys a lot of meaning without bludgeoning you with verbosity. The glances and small touches are unsettling as when Darcy assists Elizabeth into the carriage at Netherfield. The abbreviated dialogue and some absent, barely missed characters are more than compensated for with the sharp script, tight editing and clever wordplay.
In fact, having revisited the BBC series regularly, most recently the week before seeing the film, part of the enjoyment was seeing how the director and cast handled each of the setpiece scenes. Standouts are Elizabeth's first putdown of Darcy at the Assemmbly ball with a clever twist of dialogue. The dance scene with characters carrying on snippets of separate conversations as they move in and out of each others' orbits is entrancing.
There are near-kisses which caused a palpable rise in Oestrogen level in the cinema and an almost audible sigh of frustration from female audience members when they fail to connect.(!) Tip to the director: it will enhance sales of the DVD if you put the second one back, although it will not make the film better. The anticipation is better then the consummation!
There is a wealth of emotion in the eyes of the lead characters - the tumultuous scene where Lizzie first rejects Darcy's proposal displays internal conflict where the body language and eye contact between the actors contrasts in an unsettling way with their angry language. Knightley has honed her talents and it shows. She is also almost supernaturally beautiful whether smiling, crying, shouting, laughing or downcast. This film is her vehicle, but she doesn't carry it alone.
MacFayden smoulders in a different way to Firth - again, not better but a valid alternative. Knightley is almost exotically beautiful as a brunette flashing dark eyes. I agree that judging from art the British gentry seemed to enjoy rather more voluptuous ladies, and the conventionally-beautiful blonde Rosamund Pike with the 'amiable' manner would have been the obvious instant standout at a superficial level.
It is entirely believable that the inexperienced younger Bingley (believably upper-class dorkish but still intelligent and likable) should fall for her, where the more contemplative and introspective Darcy falls for Elizabeth; whose strength of character and incisive mind make her as much his equal as her attractiveness and social standing, and worthy of his time.
I had not been knowlingly familiar with Joe Wright's work. But I will seek him out from now on.