Too rushed and tried to hard to be different

Rating: 4/10 (7 July 2010)

It is difficult to put 'Pride and Prejudice' on screen in two hours when a lot of people have seen it very successfully adapted for TV over several hours! As a result there is a terrible feeling of galloping to get the plot set up for Lizzie and Darcy - witness the ridiculous treatment of the villain, Wickham, who really only appears twice. The historical inaccuracies that are very obvious really reflect the director's wish to be different from the 1995 BBC version, so no Empire lines and a generally tenant farmer feel to the Bennets. But why spend so much time building up this ambiance for it to disappear completely in the second half of the film!? The worst scene for this is Lizzie arriving at Pemberley (Chatsworth) looking like a ragamuffin and laughing at the irony of the fact that she could have been the chatelaine! Silly and ridiculously modern for a cheap effect! The direction is boisterous - Merry England (more 'Tom Jones' than Austen!) as the country fought for its' life against Napoleon! Or is that a modern parallel of Boozy English as the terrorists stalk the land!! The acting is ordinary - not enough time and dialogue to work with - occasionally the stars look good, but overall a third rate, messy, unwanted version of a much loved book and TV classic, that once again relies on you knowing the story and characters from other media, and then confronting your expectations... poorly.