The best Pride and Prejudice yet!

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2005)

I saw Pride and Prejudice in a packed theater and I observed no disappointed viewers as indicated by the applause the film received at the end. Many things impressed me immediately. Firstly, the camera work is exceptional. The scenes and colors are breathtaking. The costumes are spot on. The people who populate the screen are not characters pulled from a idealized scene of the early 19th century, but people who appear as those people were often unshaven and their clothes not just pressed and washed. So many of the older films made costumes, makeup and hair so perfectly presented, that the actors seemed plastic and unapproachable. The language of the film is so well brought from the book that I want to see it again just to listen. The characterizations were superb. Each character had depth and substance. Sutherland was wonderful as the father and the mother gave a dimension to her that gave the woman's nervousness and inappropriateness a pitiable side. Judy Dench was brilliant as the royal to the bone marrow aunt who looks down her nose on every other character who comes within her purview. The leads were well played and interesting to watch even when the viewer is well versed in the story.