The New Definitive Elizabeth Bennet

Rating: 8/10 (27 September 2005)

Although it is probably her best-known novel, and the only one which had previously been filmed, in 1940 with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, "Pride and Prejudice" seemed to miss out in the great Jane Austen cycle of the late nineties which saw filmed versions of "Sense and Sensibility", "Mansfield Park", "Persuasion" and two of "Emma". The reason was doubtless that film-makers feared comparisons with the highly popular British television adaptation from 1995. The makers of this film obviously felt that memories of that series have faded over the last decade, but the comments on this board suggest that that is not so and that Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle are still the definitive Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in many people's minds.
The director Joe Wright seems to have had the quite deliberate intention of giving the film a different look to that normally associated with Jane Austen, presumably in order to differentiate it from other cinema and television adaptations of her works. It is set in the 1790s, the decade in which the novel was written, rather than in the 1810s, the decade in which most Austen adaptations are set. (The 1940 version, however, was updated to the 1840s, according to legend because the studio had just made another film with an early Victorian setting and wanted to reuse the sets and costumes). The social divisions between the lovers are emphasised more than usual; Mr Darcy's home Pemberly is represented by Chatsworth House, one of England's grandest stately homes, whereas the Bennets are shown as impoverished country gentry living in a shabby manor house.
Having seen the latest version I can say that, for me at least, there is a new definitive Elizabeth, the lovely Keira Knightley who brings out all the wit, charm, spirit and determination of Austen's heroine. She is also suitably fresh and youthful, which is important. There is evidence from her books that Austen regarded even women in their late twenties (like Anne Elliott in "Persuasion" or Charlotte Lucas in "Pride and Prejudice" itself) as being past their prime as far as marriage was concerned. She would have been very surprised to learn that in the twentieth century her heroines would be played by actresses in their late thirties; Greer Garson was 36 in 1940, as was Emma Thompson when she made "Sense and Sensibility" in 1995.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that I was as impressed by Matthew MacFadyen as Darcy. Olivier and Firth both played him as a traditional, impeccably dressed English gentleman. MacFadyen's Darcy, with his long hair, open-necked shirts and farouche manner, is an improbably Byronic figure, more reminiscent of a Heathcliff or Mr Rochester come straight from the windswept moors than of an Austen hero. (Byron had a considerable influence on the younger generation of novelists such as the Brontes, but none at all on his older contemporary Austen, who disapproved of his morals). Colin Firth was able to convey a sense that underneath his calm, unruffled exterior Darcy was a man of strong emotions; MacFadyen has a wilder, more romantic look, but there is no sense of anything going on beneath the surface.
One of the advantages of a television as opposed to a cinematic adaptation of a classic novel is that the former generally has a longer running time and can therefore follow the plot more closely. A two-hour feature film will inevitably involve a greater amount of condensation than will a five-hour series, and one of the effects of this is that characters tend to be less well developed. (Because of the differences between the two media, I will not venture an opinion as to whether this "Pride and Prejudice" was better than the BBC's version). In order to concentrate on the Elizabeth/Darcy romance, a number of Austen's other interesting characters are rather downplayed in this film, such as the dashing but caddish seducer Wickham, the teenage wild child Lydia and the second main pair of lovers, Darcy's friend Bingley and Elizabeth's sister Jane.
The film does, however, bring out well the comic elements of the plot- I heard far more laughter in the cinema than is normal when costume dramas are being shown. The humour mostly arises from Austen's social satire at the expense of figures such as the arrogant and imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh, well played by Judy Dench as a faded relic of an earlier age, still defiantly wearing in her old age the fashions of her youth, and the pompous and obsequious clergyman Mr Collins (a great performance from Tom Hollander), forever fawning on his patron Lady Catherine. I also liked Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland as Elizabeth's eccentric parents, even if Sutherland's unkempt, unshaven Mr Bennet was not quite how I imagined the character in the book.
In all, I felt that this was one of the better Austen adaptations of recent years, on a par with Ang Lee's very different "Sense and Sensibility", and certainly better than the rather odd "Mansfield Park". 8/10