Who knew? Keira Knightley can actually act!

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2008)

I stumbled onto this adaptation of the famous novel on TV, only a few weeks after having viewed the Greer Garson / Lawrence Olivier version. I admit I honestly was not prepared to enjoy it much. After seeing Keira Knightley's - ahem - "acting" in the various "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, I expected something along the lines of Demi Moore's "Scarlett Letter". To my great surprise, she was quite good!
This movie definitely has a more modern feel than the 1940 version, which is to be expected. But with much of the formality stripped away, the emotions are better revealed. Knightley gives a very fine performance as the proud girl whose head will not be so easily turned, and refuses to let her family be trifled with; her anger and resentment when she learns of Darcy's interference with Jane's romance (and in rudely rebuffing his proposal) is much more genuine than that of Garson's Lizzie. Matthew Macfadyen also does well, playing Darcy not as Olivier's arrogant fop, but as a young man who wishes to do the right thing, but sometimes seems constrained almost to the point of stuttering by his shyness.
Smaller roles were also well cast: the somewhat surprising choice of Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet was a pleasure in his every scene, and Brenda Blethyn as his well-intentioned but frivolous wife was almost as much fun as 1940's Mary Boland. Rosamund Pike practically emanated goodness as the gentle Jane, while Judy Dench commanded her every scene as the blood-chilling Lady Catherine, who would not easily allow her stratum of society to be polluted by the upstart Bennet family. (That was the kind of role trademarked by Edna May Oliver, though, and I still prefer her, even if she did allow some sliver of goodness to peek through.)
I have not seen the oft-cited BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice", but I can attest that this 2005 version was also an excellent production. It is quite accessible to modern audiences, and has been made so without the common error of "dumbing down" the story or characters for modern tastes. It's nice to see that enjoyable period movies from classic literature can still be made without tossing in a rock ballad or changing the setting to modern Los Angeles, just to please the kiddies.
Rent this one and get your teenage daughter to watch it (it'll be easier if you mention Keira Knightley stars.) Who knows, you just may open a whole new world to her.