Great leading lady, disappointing leading man

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2005)

As a fan of the novel I have to say that it was with a little trepidation that I went to see this but it is an enjoyable movie. Keira Knightley is superb as Elizabeth, with the right mix of liveliness and impudence without losing the sense of propriety that was so dear to Jane Austen's heart. I also thought that Donald Sutherland was quite impressive and his accent was very convincing on the whole (although it did slip a bit once or twice). I thought he really carried off the role of Mr Bennett very well adding a strong edge to him. Dame Judi Dench is of course a scene-stealer as Lady Catherine de Bourgh (but then she never fails to disappoint) and Brenda Blethyn truly brings Mrs Bennet alive. All the female leads presented robust and enjoyable characters. For me the disappointment lay with the male leads (other than Mr Bennet). Darcy instead of being arrogant and proud comes across as a bit wet and frankly looks lost and miserable for most of the movie. Mr Bingley seems almost silly on a number of occasions. It is difficult to flesh out the characters of a novel like Pride and Prejudice in a movie but the male characters are very shallow and one-dimensional. Wickham is almost invisible. Perhaps just as disappointing is the dialogue. Jane Austen wrote some fabulous dialogue in this novel and it seems a shame that it was so little used. Why not have used some of the great lines already in P&P?