Not Proud And Hardly Prejudiced

Rating: 6/10 (1 December 2007)

Before I say anything, I have to mention that I'm a huge fan of the famous 1995 BBC mini-series adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I own it on DVD, and I've watched the entire series several times from start to finish. It's by far the best adaptation of a Jane Austen novel I've ever seen. Therefore, I may be a little bit subjective, but I try not to keep comparing the movie to the fantastic TV-series.
Pride and Prejudice is based on Jane Austen's classic novel about five young sisters whose mother desperately tries to marry off to wealthy men to avoid a future of poverty and loneliness, the witty second-born Elizabeth being the protagonist. The sisters' luck seems to turn when two such men, the cheerful Mr. Bingley and the haughty Mr. Darcy, enter their lives. While Mr. Bingley courts Elizabeth's beautiful older sister Jane, Elizabeth finds herself clashing with Mr. Darcy, an immensely proud man who seems impossible to please, but who turns out to conceal a gentleman Elizabeth is too prejudiced to see.
The plot is faithful enough to the original novel, so one can't really blame the story for not being interesting enough. However, it is still much less compelling than any other adaptation of the novel. Why? Because it completely overlooks the central dilemma of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's relationship - that they can't be together until Mr. Darcy stops being too proud to treat Elizabeth and her family with the respect they deserve, and Elizabeth stops being too prejudiced to see past the false rumours and misunderstandings which have stained her opinion of Mr. Darcy. On the contrary to the book, the movie's Mr. Darcy appears to fall for Elizabeth at first glance, displaying none of the disdain the original character regards her with when they first meet. Their love is shown beginning with immediate mutual attraction, instead of being shown as something they both grow into once they get over themselves. There's no pride, and hardly any prejudice, both of which are essential to the character development. Hence title, Wright, hence the title.
Now, I'm not someone who gets overly obsessed with staying loyal to the original source when translating novels into the silver screen. I don't mind changes because I understand that movies and books are two different mediums. In fact, I fully embrace even the boldest changes when they improve the quality of the movie. However, the tiny little thing changed in Pride and Prejudice is simply unacceptable because it destroys the tension between Elizabeth and Darcy, which is a crucial element in their story.
The casting is also all wrong. While I personally didn't mind Keira Knightley's bubbly take on Elizabeth Bennet, I cannot over-emphasize how bad Matthew Macfadyen is as Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy is a strong, supercilious man whose arrogant exterior conceals a respectful, honest heart. Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy seems like a brooding, insecure teenage boy with a dull, sheepish, submissive look in his eyes. His acting is wooden, every word he speaks is empty, and there isn't a hint of the character's defining traits about him. This is where I absolutely must make a comparison with Macfadyen and Colin Firth, who portrayed the same character in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Where the superb Firth was able to inject the battle of pride and passion which rages inside Mr. Darcy when he finds himself falling for a woman who he considers unworthy of him in a single look, Macfadyen cannot channel his character's emotions even when he's pouring out his soul to his beloved. With a leading man like him, how could the movie work?
While I personally quite like Joe Wright's way of portraying the hot, lazy summer days in the lush English countryside, he doesn't have much to offer than some breath-taking shots of the surrounding nature that aren't enough to compensate the movie's flaws. Most of the time he seems rather clueless about the story he's telling, struggling especially with dialog-heavy scenes. I much preferred his next title, Atonement, a movie similar in style but remarkably advanced in quality.