Surprisingly refreshing

Rating: 9/10 (12 September 2005)

I liked this film more than I ever thought I would.
PP is utterly engaging, emotionally resonating, and truly beautiful. Photography is lush, cinematography is outstanding, art design is impressive and director Joe Wright has a wonderful choreographic talent for organising space and people - the long tracking shots he uses for the two major (and magnificent) dance scenes, and the opening sequence at the Bennet House comprise brilliant film-making. The music is enchanting too.
The overall atmosphere of the film is evocative, down-to-earth, very sensual. Many may not appreciate this reading of Austen; but in my opinion this earthy, sensuous interpretation actually works surprisingly well.
The plot mainly focuses on Lizzie and Darcy which ensures coherency and flow and streamlines the action. Even so, Bingley and Jane are nicely-played and the relationship between Lizzy and Jane is endearing and realistic too.
At first Bingley is a little too comedic with his froggy bug-eyes and a shock of bright red hair, but he grows on you - his crush on Jane (a luminous Rosamund Pike) is heart-warming. His failed proposal is amusing too, as is an additional scene where Darcy 'rehearses' the proposal with Bingley.
Lydia and Wickham are much less-developed, and both characterisations are not so satisfying. Lydia is just too giddy and even a little vulnerable. Wickham has a touch of the sociopath  there is even a foreboding of marital violence.
The Bennet family is one of the highlights of this production. The chaos, warmth and humour of the household is delightful; We do hear Donald Sutherland's Canadian twang but his Mr Bennet inspires affection. Mrs Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) is comical and vulgar but lovable and naturalistic too.
Stand-out minor characters - Mr Collins (Tom Hollander) is pitched nicely, very funny but very stiff; Penelope Wilton has a nice cameo role with Aunt Gardiner; Judi Dench's Lady Catherine de Bourgh is amusing, most especially when she hyperventilates like an angry rhino during her final confrontation with Lizzie - although it is some measure of her overall lesser importance here that this scene actually felt a little unnecessary by this stage.
Darcy is truly wonderful - in my opinion Matthew MacFayden nails this role. I love the Firth portrayal (BBC 1995), but have always considered it just TOO haughty and mature and confrontational, even for the novel's Darcy. Despite a shorter running time and an occasionally jarring script, MacFayden's acting is wonderfully subtle - there is a sense throughout of intense emotion barely contained ... just beneath the skin. His eyes flicker with light and shade to relay emotion. He has a powerful presence throughout.
As for Knightley's Lizzie - at first I didn't like her one jot. Too many teeth, too perky, clipped delivery - but she gains real gravitas as the film progresses. (Despite this she is awful in the very last scene - but that is the fault of the script). In 1995 Jennifer Ehle's Lizzie was marvellously witty, but maybe a little too matronly. Knightley's flighty Lizzie is so very different - a bright young girl grappling to come to terms with her emotional and sexual feelings. She is not the much-loved Lizzie Bennet of the book  but there are flashes. This is still a pleasing and appropriate Lizzie in the short space of time we have to know her.
Sure, this film is not too big on ideas and wit and verbal combat - it is fleshier, sexier, easier to understand in a digestible 2 hour fix; but it succeeds brilliantly in what it set out to do, which is to revel in Austen's world, language, and this hugely entertaining love affair. This film is primarily about falling and being in love.
The tense physical attraction between Lizzie and Darcy is enacted beautifully - Darcy's gaze lingers on Lizzie's neck (a beautiful neck by the way and frequently seen), and their fierce argument when he first proposes - strong acting overwhelming what was otherwise quite a clichéd scene - and their graduating sense of mutual awareness as the story progresses. Even their final sappy scene together is rather charming, albeit cloaked in dawn mists amidst thundering romantic piano music.
Stand-out scenes include one likely to enrage Austenite purists when Lizzie visits Pemberley and marvels at a gallery chock-full of Classical Greek marble male statues  she tearfully admires the smooth eroticism of their naked forms. The grandiose ceiling above is festooned with plump naked cherubs and scantily-clad ladies.
The opening scenes at the Bennet house are fabulous, Lizzie's begging her father to not allow her to marry Mr Collins by a sunset-drenched lake, and the first assembly is a rumbustious, lively affair - you can almost smell the sweat.
But for me the best scene in the film is the Netherfield Ball. This sequence is stunning; the camera swooping and diving throughout the action, pursuing multiple characters and story lines before the camera finally moves outside of the ballroom and finds Lizzie alone, recovering from her dance with Mr Darcy.
The film is packed with similar moments - the camera seems to track closer and closer to Lizzie as the plot progresses, and constantly captures subtle signs of Darcy's physical response to Lizzie's presence such as when he flexes his hand whenever he has been near to her.
There are also a lot of laughs in this film. Watching this is rather like quickly downing a few glasses of champagne - you feel bubbly, lightheaded, even enervated.
Don't expect a deeply cerebral experience. Don't expect virtuous reverence to text and period. Don't have too many pre-conceptions - just enjoy the film for what it is: silly, sexy, often very witty, visually stunning, at times remarkably subtle and beautifully acted (MacFayden is a stand-out in this department, as is Blethyn); all directed with great verve and feeling.