My thoughts on Pride and Prejudice

Rating: Null/10 (8 March 2006)

Pride and Prejudice has been my favourite book since I was a teenager (quite a few years ago!). I can remember the black and white BBC version staring Alan Badel as Mr Darcy. He was magnificent! I watched with interest the BBC version staring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy and found that he lived up to the standard set many years ago by Mr Badel.
I also remember seeing the Laurence Oliver version many years ago and thought it was absolutely ghastly! So I was interested to see the new film version, wondering what they could do with such a masterpiece in just a couple of hours.
It took me a little while to get through Ms Knightley's "Posh" pouting and the very dour Matthew Macfadyn as Mr Darcy, but I came away quite liking it and decided to go again. After the second time, I came away a big fan having thoroughly enjoyed it.
How do you squeeze a book such as this into a 2 hour, or thereabouts, slot? For many years I was a P&P purist, but now I just see this as another take on a brilliantly written story. It would be impossible to develop all the characters in such a short time and who do you leave out? I am glad that the director chose to give us Mr Collins (brilliantly acted) which was perhaps at the expense of Wickham. However, I do agree that Bingley was too foppish in this version.
Having now seen it again on DVD, I think Matthew Macfadyn, although different, was a great Darcy.
I loved watching the film on DVD with the director's comments. Quite amusing. I congratulate him on a job well done.
The last thing I would like to comment on is the superbly uplifting music by Dario Marianelli. The only criticism I have of the CD is that the pieces are not long enough!