Definitely worth watching

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2005)

Its definitely better than I expected though not as good as the BBC version. What it does score points on over the BBC is the money that's been spent on it e.g. when the militia arrives in Merryton its a big procession of soldiers with band etc rather than just a handful of soldiers dotted about.
The acting was really good, Judi Dench as Lady Catherine was unsurprisingly very good, Brenda Blethyn was good as Mrs Bennett and played her slightly more sympathetic, she comes across more loving towards her family but just a silly and OTT! I wasn't sure if I liked Donald Sutherland at first but at the end when he gives his consent to Lizzie's marriage you really did feel sorry for him for loosing his favourite daughter. On a negative side i thought they made the guy who played Mr Bingley play him as a bit of a buffoon for comedy value which did get some laughs but they made him seem like a idiot! Some of the words and scenes were changed in order to condense it into 2 hours but on the whole I didn't think this spoilt the plot and in some places it added more dramatic strength. However one negative part of this was they really cut back the part of Mr Wickam to the bare minimum, you only get 1 scene with Lizzie and Wickam and the next time you see him is after he has married Lydia. If you didn't know the plot you would be wondering why Lizzie was so enamoured with him.
As for Mr Darcy, Matthew MacFadyen was very sexy and successful in the role. However i thought his proposals were not as good as Colin Firth's.
Keira Knightly as a whole is really good as Lizzie, in fact her skinniness works for her as it makes her seem quite gangley and stick like compared to her sisters and so she doesn't come across as 100% perfect.
There are 2 odd scenes, one were where Lizzie and Mr Darcy are dancing at the Ball and all of a sudden they are in a dream like scene where they are the only 2 in the ballroom dancing. CHEESY! Also when Lizzie is walking around Pemberley she seems to linger quite a bit looking at marble naked torso's of statues! Anyway i definitely wouldn't mind seeing it again as i spent all of last time comparing it to the BBC version, so I would like to see it just for itself next time!