Bringing the characters out of the costumes

Rating: 9/10 (2 February 2006)

I have to scout for (mostly female) friends to take in a drama like P&P as my mate won't go with me to "costume dramas." Now this 2005 version of the Jane Austen classic outdoes the previous dramatizations to the degree, I can see now, some of his objections to many stories set in European drawing rooms, especially those fussy with decorative but mercenary matchmaking. Joe Pike's P&P puts many formulaic or less than excellent period pieces in the shade.
P&P's characters wear their costumes rather than being worn by them, dominated by "period" gestures and stereotypes. P&P frees the characters from confinement in a quaint past, when women's independence was laughable and their lives and happiness were gained through scheming strategies to attract husbands.
In Joe Pike's P&P the arch statements, the simpering younger Bennett girls and endless conversational references to the annual incomes of wealthy bachelors play out in a context of normal and recognizable human behaviour. Every raised eyebrow and fingered ribbon is naturalistic, the characters not mere types from a lamentable era whose strictures we shudder at.
The casting in this film is sublime. Donald Sutherland is seldom used so much against type, and so well. Judi Dench is authoritative, as always, but not overpowering the feisty Miss Bennett. Keira Knightley has remarkable presence and strength (it's almost prejudicial to say, in such a young actor.) Add a convincing recreation of pastoral English countryside and country dances at which the dancers robustly enjoy themselves. Add also a finely rendered musical score, mostly of solo piano, integrated into the story line. And the panoramic sweeps of the camera, from the character's viewpoint, putting the viewer, too, at the centre of the experience. Well, as you can see, I'm just like a duck on the pond on Mr. D'Arcy's grand estate. Lots to feed me there, and I can certainly see going for a return visit or two.