Forget Colin Firth, THIS is how Darcy should be.

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2005)

When I went to the cinema to see the most recent adaptation of Pride and Prejudice I was sure it was going to be terrible. "Keira Knightly playing Lizzy Bennet? You have got to be kidding?! She is too thin and beautiful and untalented and air headed to be able to assume one of the best-loved characters of English literature. And Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy? Sure he did a superb job in 'Spooks', but surely he doesn't have the depth to be able to beat, or even equal Colin Firths performance! And anyway there have been so many adaptations, another would be entirely superfluous. They're probably just going to Hollywoodise it and ruin it completely for everyone." These were my thoughts before entering the cinema, only going to see the movie because of my love of 'Spooks'.
Fortunately for me (but rather unfortunately for those around me), I loved it and have become completely and utterly obsessed with it. I have since seen it another 4 times and am still impressed with how brilliant an actor Keira Knightly is, she manages to become Lizzy and make the character her own in every way. She might not be your traditional Lizzy, but she is the perfect Lizzy for this adaptation.
Now we all know the story of Pride and Prejudice, but in case you need your memory to be refreshed here's a quick summary: The 5 Bennett sisters: the very beautiful Jane, intelligent Lizzy, bookish Mary, naive Kitty and wild and flirtatious Lydia, their father and neurotic mother lived in Georgian England, a time when the best a young woman could hope for was to marry a rich gentleman with an optional personality. Mrs Bennet is particularly keen for her daughters to marry because, as she reminds them almost daily, when their father dies they shall not inherit the estate because it has been entailed away to their rather pathetic and highly annoying distant cousin, Mr Collins. Life for the Bennets is fairly uneventful, until the rich and kind Mr Bingly, his unpleasant sister and the seemingly unpleasant, proud and prejudiced Mr Darcy come to town and their lives are changed forever.
As I said Keira Knightly did a fantastic job in this movie. The scene that particularly impressed me was when she was in the sculpture room at Pemberly. To be able to convey a billion emotions of love, loss, regret, sadness, etc that are your characters and not your own to a lump of rock (albeit a beautifully carved lump of rock) must be very difficult. And with a camera circling you and the crew standing around staring at you must it must be near impossible. Yet she managed to do it with seeming ease, bringing the whole audience with her, showing the audience everything her character was going through without words or another actor to work off. To me this showed just how good an actor she really is.
Matthew Macfadyen, what can be said about the breath taking performance by Matthew Macfadyen? It's the kind of performance that restores your faith in men. Forget Colin Firth, THIS is how Darcy should be. You can see that this Mr Darcy has feelings and is human. Colin Firth may have the scene where he emerges from the lake fully clothed and soaking wet. But Matthew Macfadyen has the intense stares, the beautiful eyes, the crack in his voice at Pemberly, the full body shiver during the first proposal scene and let's not forget the entire of the second proposal that had women (and men) across the world wishing that their lives could be like that, and that they had a Mr Darcy of their very own. Keeley Hawes, Matthew Macfadyens wife, doesn't know just how lucky she is.
But Knightly and Macfadyen aren't the only actors in this, the entire cast did a brilliant job, particularly the very very very beautiful Rosamund Pike (Jane Bennet), Brenda Blethyn (Mrs Bennet), Donald Sutherland (Mr Bennet), Claudie Blakley (Charlotte Lucas) and Talulah Riley (Mary Bennet) were all very impressive.
My one complaint about the whole movie is that it could have done with a little more time to develop the Mr Wickham aspect of the story. It was handled so quickly that it didn't allow you enough time to see just how much and why Mr Darcy hated him. But apart from that it was perfect.
I can't wait to see it again.