Could have been so much better

Rating: 3/10 (16 February 2006)

It was probably only a matter of time before someone had a go at making a new version of Pride and Prejudice, The 1995 TV series with Colin Firth is generally regarded as the definitive version.
Unfortunately newcomer Joe Wright's new version is no competition for that title.
It's been nominated for for 4 Oscars so when I started watching this I did have fairly high expectations.
And this is a very beautiful film, visuals wise, the photography and cinematography is wonderful, but the whole film feels like an American civil war film, it feels incredibly over American which just isn't right for such a specifically British novel.
Keira Knightley's performance is very one dimensional and while watching her you never feel like your watching Elizabeth Bennet it feels like your watching Keira Knightley.
Admittedly, if it hadn't been for the 90's BBC TV series this would probably stand up quite well, but the fact of the matter is that this is a very boring, poorly performed film that makes little sense if you are unfamiliar with the story but at the same time is incredibly patronising and unsubtle.
The film is only 2 hours long, hardly short, but there is so much cut out from the original novel and therefor it makes little sense some of the time and it feels like the whole story is happening within the space of about a week.
This film could have been so much better, this is an incredible story and Keira Knightley is hardly a bad actress, in fact this film potentially had everything going for it. But somehow they manage to make an incredibly entertaining complex character study into a very tacky, boring and poorly thought-out film that is very disappointing not just for Austin fans but also for film fans in general.
For the definitive film version look to the BBC series which while being over six hours is worth every minute. This film will only provide disappointment