Stunning...you must see it

Rating: 9/10 (27 November 2005)

I loved, absolutely LOVED this film. I love the book as well, which doesn't hurt.
OK, so the look of the film is beautiful. The lighting, colour choice, art direction, all superb. I had a special link to the film in that I've been to the manor house that they use to be Pemberly and met the owner (Chatsworth House and the Duchess of Devonshire). The rooms they showed are in the house, even the sculpture room, though the bust of Darcy is a new addition (lol).
I enjoyed how they made Elizabeth's beauty stand out, but not to overshadow her supposedly much more beautiful sister, by using drab colours (browns, dull greens). She looks earthly, like a wood nymph. I have always been a fan of Kiera's since I first saw her in The Hole and then in Bend It Like Beckham. Some of the scenes she played were wonderful...near the end when she is heartbroken over Darcy and runs upstairs to be alone and cry, and the end when she asks her father to allow her to marry him.
On to Darcy...no, I haven't seen the 1995 miniseries. I have however, like much of the world, seen clips of Firth emerging out of the pond, wet. I love Firth as much as the next girl, but I adore Matthew MacFadyen. I've watched him in the show Spooks (MI-5 to Americans on BBC America) and loved him then. It's nice to see him take on something different. Yes, I admit, he does seem a bit cold, but that's Darcy. He has his guard up. And there are scenes, obvious scenes, where you can see that he is struggling, that he has feelings (the close-up of his hand twitching after he helps Lizzy onto the coach, when he joins her in the cottage to try to "practice" with small talk). My two favourite scenes were when he emerged out of the mist (for quite obvious reasons...I think it's the sexiest thing I've witnessed on celluloid) and when he and his sister are speaking to Lizzy and her family at Pemberly. We get a glimpse of his softer side when his sister runs up and jumps into his arms, and he swings her around. But my heart skipped a beat when we see him smile. After the dozens of minutes of him barely opening his mouth, he smiles, and there is a warmth there not seen before, and gentleness. It is that that makes him irresistible.
Sutherland is great. He subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) gives a very good comedic performance, as well as Mr. Collins, and Mrs. Bennett. I didn't care for Mr. Bingley. I think they did him a great injustice. He is portrayed as a bumbling idiot, which he is not. Yes, he obviously loves Jane, but there is no need to make him out to be a simpleton.
Besides Bingley, the only other thing I can really think of that I didn't like was some of the camera work. In the end when Elizabeth is speaking with her father, the camera is incredibly jerky. Instead of smoothly zooming on, it jerks forward, then back, forward then back, over and over. It completely broke through my suspension of disbelief. Before that I had been engrossed, almost as if I were there myself, then I was suddenly thrust back into this century without giving my consent. But, BRAVO to Joe Wright. His first feature film, and what an excellent way to do it. I shall follow his career and hope that though he has set the bar so high, he can easily remain up there in the ether.