- A pleasant surprise, with Keira shining in the lead.

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2006)

Pride & Prejudice
Directed by Joe Wright (2005)
Pride & Prejudice is another adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved novel. It has its focus on the main character Elizabeth, and her family, when their life is turned upside down, due to the new presence of two wealthy bachelors. We get comedy, tragic, and some exciting moments throughout the movie.
Actually this is the 7th version of the original novel, if you include mini-series and TV-movies. I have not seen any of these before. I have not read the novel either, or in fact - seen the two other successful and Oscar winning Austen adaptations: Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Jane Austen adaptations are actually a quite new area for me. And therefore I really did not know what I should expect from this movie, before I saw its ratings. When it came, they were, unlike to my suspicions, quite good! And the reviews followed, and suddenly Keira got some buzz, and then suddenly a Golden Globe nomination.
I have actually always liked Keira Knightley. I first noticed her as the soccer-hotty in Bend It Like Beckham, and from there she went on to a sudden Hollywood success in Pirates and the Caribbean, and a supporting role in the ambitious medieval movie King Arthur. The last movie a saw her in, before this one, was the "Butterfly Effect"-like twisted movie The Jacket, in which I thought she gave her best acting performance. All these characters really did not have anything in common with a young and inexperienced girl from the end of the 1700th century. How would she do this role? She did a great job! She used her naive looks and beauty and mixed it with the really sharp personality of her role, and delivered a complete character. Keira was defiantly the star of the movie, but that does not mean that she was the only actor shining through in this movie. Matthew MacFadyen delivered a good and solid performance in the role of her equal, Mr. Darcy. The rest of the crew, lead by Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike & Judi Dench helped making the overall cast performance have its high acting level. The only one who actually annoyed me a bit was Brenda Blethyn, who I thought, overacted a bit too much. But hey! Maybe her character really is so hysterical..?
The movie was beautiful filmed, and uses long camera shots, mixed with a discreet editing. The art-set decoration captures the spirit of the time well, and especially the costumes fit the characters very good. The score is nice, but not over-used.
A pleasant surprise and a wonderful motion picture debut for the newcomer Joe Wright. Keira shows that she is to be taken serious!
8/10