Capital offense

Rating: 2/10 (2 January 2009)

A truth, universally acknowledged is that this movie is not true to the Austen book. Not even slightly. I won't go hard on the ridiculous script and director's decisions, though some of the scenes really bothered me. But I promised myself to avoid any comparison to any of the previous adaptations. I must say, though, I'm really disappointed with the cast. I hold no hatred for Knightley, but my opinion is that she's a weak actress. In all her movies she acts the same, moves the same, has the same phrasing. She was not convincing at all. Matthew Macfadyen was even worse. He definitely has the looks but I don't think he succeeded at portraying Darcy. Seriously, half the movie he's plain dull, and the other half he looks like a stray puppy. No dignity, no pride. And I won't go into detail about Mr. Bingley, Mr. Wickham and other disappointing portrayals. Any man who isn't mental will notice there's something wrong with them, even if he has neither read the Book, nor watched previous adaptations. But after all there were some good things about this movie. I absolutely enjoyed the performances of Rosamund Pike (Jane) and Tom Hollander (Mr. Collins). They did excellent job, each of them seemed consumed in their role. And though they can't make up for the fault of the entire movie, they sure weaken the feeling of absurdity, that took over me 15 minutes after the film had started. And even from the perspective of a chick-flick, the movie is not worth it. Not to mention what a pain it would be to anyone who's fond of Austen's works, or is particularly interested in that time period. My advice is - instead of wasting over two hours of your life, go fetch yourself the book, or even the BBC adaptation with Firth and Ehle. I guarantee neither will disappoint you.