WORST Adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" in Decades

Rating: 1/10 (24 June 2012)

Between Deborah Moggach's god-awful screenplay and director Joe Wright's dismal vision of a filthy, graceless English upper class, this is the most dismal of the many film versions of Jane Austen's classic since the laughably bad 1940 movie.
The Elizabeth Bennett of this movie is a slovenly, thick-headed country bumpkin who eats like a slob, plays the pianoforte like a ham-fisted 5-year-old and has the conversational skills of an autistic teenage boy. She lives in a grubby, falling down hovel surrounded by untended fields, dusty drives and muddy yards filled with free-roaming livestock. Compared to this version of poor Elizabeth, Tess of the Durbervilles was like Marie Antoinette. Elizabeth is not alone in this coarseness, however; director Wright gives us an entire class of people who look more like ragtag medieval peasants than 19th century aristocrats.
Do yourself a favor and ignore this travesty. The marvelous 1995 mini-series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is vastly better in every way, especially its choice of sticking faithfully to Jane Austen's dialogue and plot line, instead of debasing them with a cheesy Hollywood attempt at embellishment.