unintentionally hilarious

Rating: 3/10 (23 September 2005)

This gets a three rather than a one simply because I have rarely laughed so much in a film, and believe me, I don't think the director had planned all of those laughs. Whilst this is undeniably a visually attractive film, it comes across as a send up of Pride and Prejudice rather than a "new gritty realistic" portrayal. Obviously the entire budget was spent on Keira Knightley's pay cheque, hence a ridiculous CGI shot of her on a cliff in Derbyshire (too expensive to actually go there was it?), and an obviously puffing smoke machine in the scene where Darcy comes striding through the "mist". The script is a horrific mix of lines lifted straight from the book alongside ones that sound jarringly modern. The plot, due to time restrictions, is literally told to us in huge speeches by the characters, bludgeoning the audience round the head with facts, rather than letting us find out for ourselves. Charlotte Lucas telling Lizzy why she has married Mr Colins is a case in point, as is Lydia telling Lizzy that Mr Darcy paid for her wedding, and the most ridiculous example is when Lizzy is telling her father that she does in fact love Darcy, because he's not proud or prejudiced at all, he's actually really nice and they've all been wrong the whole time. Thanks for that, we would never have known. And then Mr Bennet actually cries! The acting has highs and lows; Rosamund Pike and Brenda Blethyn shine, Keira Knightely reveals that in fact she is nothing but a pretty face and couldn't act her way out of a paper bag, and Donald Sutherland doesn't even attempt an English accent. As your reviewer in Belfast noted, the film is simply too short to do the book justice, and instead of being bold and attempting a brave new adaptation, Working Title have simply shoe horned information into a visually arresting but patently ridiculous new film, which neither justifies its existence by taking a new look at a classic or backs itself up with good performances from its cast. The emotion and humour of the novel have been beaten to a pulp by terrible acting and a shameful script. I laughed til I cried at the pure schmaltzy crassness of some of the scenes, and was literally embarrassed at some points for those members of the cast with any talent. I read in one review that none of the cast nor the director had ever read the book before embarking on this film. Believe me, it shows.