Austen turned into trash

Rating: 1/10 (11 February 2006)

I couldn't agree with the one star crowd more. This simply doesn't compare with the BBC series. Jane Austen's spirit is not present, the thing is witless and illustrative. Even worse, it's conceived in an eye-poking populist manner. The proper costumes of the classicist period were swapped for a mishmash of later styles for a 'better' look, and the story itself was relieved of Austen's social observations, and warped into something imponderous like a daytime soap. It's Lizzie's new version that this weightlessness is most evident in: she's all attitude and no personality. And no discipline either: she giggles downright stupidly all the time, like a spoiled brat long overdue for a punch in the nose. Watching this atrocity, I couldn't help thinking of the 'creative' team of braindeads behind it. How much they must have been struggling to make every aspect and detail 'consumable', i.e. dumb. I'm afraid they have fully achieved their goals with this mess devoid of competence, style and respect.