when one can fall in love with a movie...

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2009)

I really feel deeply emotionally engaged in reviewing "Pride and Prejudice": I am such a Jane Austen addicted that my review is more a profession of faith than a proper review: let's admit I cannot be an impersonal and objective judge. However, no doubt that Jane Austen's most loved novel is brought to vivid life by Joe Wright's adaptation: a matter of fact, a very considerable and significant one, is that the director didn't fall into the temptation to turn the movie into a romantic hodgepodge, but, on the contrary, respected the intention and the mood of the novelist. Jane Austen's narrative didn't belong to the romantic age, both from a historical and from a conceptual point of view: what she provided was deep psychological insight into her characters, along with careful social analysis. She could be considered a sort of modern psychologist, one of those counsellors of today, who answer questions in today's magazines. The movie, focused on Elizabeth's relation to Darcy, proves total adherence to the novel. The heroine is a self-conscious, intelligent girl, who, despite her young age, knows perfectly the complex, and not only charming nature of love. Love is not only a matter of honeyed words, and languishing eyes: love is a very serious matter demanding trust, honesty, communion of mind and soul and only when unresolved and tricky questions are sorted out, is she able to accept and to give love. What the movie doesn't lack, and which is to be found widely in the novel, too, is that subtle and witty irony, pervading dialogues and situations. Period detail is impeccable, costumes and locations are a pure delight for the eye. The final result is truly enjoyable, funny, thoughtful and extraordinarily able to attract a modern audience, both of women and men: I was able to persuade my father, who is an old-fashioned man fond of western and action movies and really allergic to costume-movies, to see and even appreciate it. I admit I was once able to see it twice: I just never get bored, it seems I can never get enough. I truly loved and still love this movie!