A Bit Off

Rating: 4/10 (23 March 2006)

I found the Elizabeth Bennett portrayed by Keira Knightly to be a bit off. A lot of the dialogue made the characters seem superficial. When Elizabeth says something along the lines of "That's a shame for I dearly love to laugh," it just didn't fit. All the scenes seemed so rushed and condensed. Mr. Bingley was portrayed as a witless idiot instead of a nice guy with a happy disposition. Mr. Wickham was strangely absent almost the entire movie and none of his deceitfulness was shown, and Mr. Hurst and Bingley's other sister were gone as well. Matthew M. gave no depth to Mr. Darcy. Where was the struggle to come to grips with his feelings for Elizabeth? His lines were delivered quickly rather than with any real emotion. Mr. Bennett being played by Donald Sutherland was a little creepy. His breathing was heavy and his hair was wild. And it seemed as though his partiality for Lizzy and a little for Jane was totally absent. He seemed to disapprove of all of his girls at one point and then to think highly of them all at others. Mrs. Bennett was semi-accurate, but had her moments of clarity and sense which isn't quite consistent with the book. And why in the world was there a scene of Elizabeth and Darcy in the rain or a scene with them half dressed and out in the misty morning? It seemed a bit disjointed and jumpy as well. Elizabeth is just suddenly visiting her aunt and uncle and Lydia just gets invited to go to Brighton without anyone even really knowing who invited her. Maybe if I had never seen the 1995 Simon Langton version or read the book I might have found this to be an all right love story, but as an adaptation of P&P I found it seriously lacking. Noble effort to try and make a 2 hour movie out of a story like Pride and Prejudice, but they should have left well enough alone.