Poor Jane Austen!

Rating: 5/10 (17 May 2006)

I should imagine Austen would be spinning in her grave after viewing this travesty. What a terrible waste of a very talented cast. Not only was much of the dialogue unintelligible(I wonder if the director was trying to include as much as possible in two hours and told the cast to speak quickly), but neither Darcy nor Elizabeth stirred one's emotions as they should. There was a surfeit of grimacing and posing, but not much passion, in evidence. The Bennet household was portrayed as in chaos, practically showing animals in the house, which is absurd. The intended tense relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet was nowhere to be found; this is a critical piece of drama that affects the whole text and was very much missed. And poor Donald Sutherland! What was with the hand-to-the-face giggling when Elizabeth told him about her love for Darcy? Judi Dench, as Lady Catherine, does have a few minutes of glory--a welcome relief. That said, the photography was splendid. Still, all in all, a very unbelievable portrayal. As much as I love P&P, I could barely finish it.