The Pitiful Production of Pride and Prejudice

Rating: 3/10 (16 April 2014)

Have you ever read a novel/book and a few years later you hear that there is a movie being made of the book you read? And so you are finally in the movie theaters excited to watch the movie to your favorite novel and a few hours later you walk out and it's the most terrible movie adaptation of a novel you have ever seen. That is exactly how I felt when I watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyan. I got eager to watch a modern take on a classic novel and instead got very disappointed by the movie. Overall, I did not like anything about this movie adaptation of one of Jane Austen's famous novel.
Pride and Prejudice is about a family of five daughters that are in search of suitable husbands. But most of the attention is on the rich, prideful Mr. Darcy and also the prideful, yet cunning Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest of the daughters. Both overcome their pride and prejudice and fall in love with each other. First off, I don't think the selection of the cast was chosen very well. Matthew Macfadyan was too gentle and kind looking for such a major character as Mr. Darcy. Because of this cast selection it felt like some kind of aspect from the novel was missing entirely from the movie, which completely changed the whole attitude of the movie. And so I did not like that feeling of emptiness throughout the entire movie. Another bothersome piece of the movie was that the director and staff overdramatized most parts of the movie. The scene in where Darcy confesses his love and hand in marriage to Elizabeth, it was just too clichÃ©. Both of them were standing outside and all of a sudden it downpours. There was no mention of rain in the novel and in fact this all took place indoors. This was such an important part of the novel and dramatizing it did not help out with the movie, it only made it worse. With mentioning scene changes, there were too many differences of scenes and lines in the movie. The movie was written as if the staff were just putting words into the actors'/actresses' mouths. And with all these modifications come my final point in that the movie was not at all accurate to the novel. While I was watching the movie, I became confused as to where this and that came from. Things were so different I don't see how the director could call this Pride and Prejudice. This movie did not meet any of my expectations for adaptations to novels.
The 2005 movie of Pride and Prejudice disappointed me a great deal and is one of the worst movie adaptations of a novel I have seen. The entire movie varied so much that I could not find myself relating to the novel at all. And so if you've procrastinated on having to read Pride and Prejudice for a class I recommend do not watch this movie because it will not help you pass that test or help you write that essay. Just take the F or, even better, just read the book.