Good entertainment with nice-looking actors and scenery.

Rating: 5/10 (29 April 2006)

The film was over-all quite enjoyable with decent acting by young Kiera Knightly and equally decent casting for the most part. The scenery and photography are alone worth the while, but I found the film rather brim-filled with symbolism which at times was a tad too obvious and felt contrived.
Though I believe the bar for Mr. Darcy has been set quite high in the past, I have to say that I liked this Mr. Darcy and found McFadyen's performance intense and rather passionate! It doesn't hurt that he is nice to look at, as well. Kiera Knightly's Lizzy was a bit too young in my opinion but I don't want to discredit her performance otherwise.
It must be a pretty thankless job to make a version of Pride and Prejudice as anyone having seen the BBC version, I believe, will automatically compare the two. Though I do think the BBC version stays truer to the novel, this version is definitely worth watching if you are a fan of Jane Austen's. It offers some very good rewrites to adapt the novel to a shorter film version and still keep the essence of it intact. The over-use of symbolism is what makes my score a little lower than the film may actually deserve. I still recommend it.