A poor representation of a beautiful story....

Rating: 3/10 (28 May 2009)

This is the fourth film version of Jane Austen's "Pride And Prejudice" that I have seen, and it is, without a doubt, the very worst. For a real representation of Austen's novel, try the wonderful version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. This most recent film doesn't even come close, and appears to be a poor attempt at such a beautiful story and characters.
The film radiates "modern," from its strange pseudo-period, pseudo-modern costumes and hairstyles (Young women wearing their hair down in public?), to its leading lady, Keira Knightly. Knightly gives a very shallow and contemporary performance as Lizzie, and is not helped much by the generally poor supporting cast. Although Matthew Macfayden is quite good as Mr. Darcy (no Colin Firth, though!), he is not good enough to save the film.
All in all, I would never recommend this to any Au.ten fan -- for truly quality performance, go for "Pride and Prejudice" with the incomparable Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.