Beauty and Boredom

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2006)

Pride and Prejudice isn't a bad film by any means. The thing is, I don't think it deserves all the praise it's been getting since its release in November.
Pride and Prejudice is based on Jane Austen's most famous novel, and is mainly about the love/hate relationship between poor girl Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) and rich man Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfayden). The story is set in Georgian England. As far as I'm concerned, this is at least the 4th of 5th film based on the novel. There was even a Bollywood musical adaptation released in 2004. So, was director Joe Wright and co. able to bring something new to the table?
Overall, I'd say yes. First things first, the film is extremely beautiful to look at. Whether it's the fields, the small houses, or the large ballrooms, they all look amazing. Wright shined in the ball scenes. Despite the huge number of people, he handled it very well. His camera (or scanner, I must say) moved smoothly from one character to another, and he rarely cut. And not to mention, the dances were well choreographed. I also really liked the score; it was very heartwarming and very fitting.
The acting was very good too. Knightley gave a great performance, and her Oscar nomination was well-deserved. Just look at her eyes during Mr. Darcy's first proposal. You could really feel her pain and vulnerability. Macfayden was good, and Judi Dench was great as Catherine de Bourg, although I felt she was criminally underused (2 scenes in the whole film).
And unfortunately, that's where the good news ends. The film makers had to fit a 4-hour story into a 2-hour film, so a lot of stuff had to be chopped. As a result, all the secondary characters almost had no screen time. For example, Mr. Wickham gets only 2 scenes, and Mary Bennett gets about 10 lines. So, whenever Elizabeth and/or Darcy were not on screen, I was bored to death, because frankly, I couldn't care less about the other characters in the film. They were as bland as it gets.
Another thing I hated was all the "stalking" scenes. In several scenes of the film, we see Darcy in the background, quietly staring at Elizabeth. Yeah, I know his pride and shyness prevented him from talking to her, but for some reason, I felt these scenes belong to a horror movie or something. One scene in particular had me laughing (unintentionally of course); When Elizabeth bumps into someone (we couldn't see who he is), and then the camera moves up to show us Darcy's face, looking down on her, I thought he was going to grab a knife and cut her throat or something. That scene was during the "hate" part of their relationship, so it would have made sense, heh.
So, I'd recommend watching Pride and Prejudice, but I'd suggest lowering your expectations. Or even better, I'd suggest seeing other Working Title films like Love Actually, and Bridget Jones' Diary, and I think you'll have a better time. I know I did.