Keira Knightley lights up the screen.

Rating: 9/10 (19 September 2016)

Keira Knightley lights up the screen in a beautiful adaptation of Jane Austen's much loved novel. It's a film full of wonderful scenes, many of which live in the memory due to Knightley's peerless radiance. She has never looked more perfect, and Joe Wright focuses his lens with great aplomb on his heroine, allowing her to take centre stage.
Matthew Macfadyen plays Darcy, in a role perhaps slightly underwritten, and as the film progresses, he shows us something of Darcy's awkwardness. However, this retelling is more interested in Elizabeth Bennet (Knightley) than it is in Darcy, and Macfayden has to make the most of the lines given to him.
Brenda Blethyn impresses as Mrs Bennet, as does Donald Sutherland as her spouse. Both are superb. Simon Woods (Mr Bingley) does well too, and his romance with Jane (a lovely Rosamund Pike) is beautifully portrayed. Judi Dench is suitably imperious as Lady Catherine de Bourg. Tom Hollander, as the ridiculous Collins, gives a wonderfully sycophantic performance.
Beautiful scene follows beautiful scene - the rumbustious public ball, Lizzie realising that Darcy has helped her onto a carriage, the sophisticated private ball with Darcy and Lizzie's dance, the single camera shot taking in so many guests and happenings, Collins' proposal to the unsuspecting heroine, Lizzie on a swing watching the seasons pass, Darcy's proposal (beautifully catching the conflicting emotions), Lizzie receiving Darcy's letter, the sunlight playing on Lizzie's face as she journey's north, Lizzie atop a rocky outcrop, Lizzie seeing Pemberley for the first time, Lizzie walking among the statues, then peering around a door frame to see Darcy and his sister, Lizzie explaining a letter she's just received, the Bennet family panicking when Bingley and Darcy pay an unexpected visit, Lizzie admitting a little of her feelings to Jane, Bingley's proposal, and Darcy and Lizzie finding each other as the sun rises. Almost every moment is beautifully constructed and photographed, and at the centre of it all is Keira Knightley giving what, to date, is her career defining performance as the luminous, intelligent, and witty heroine.
It's a beautiful film. Almost perfect.