Realistic

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2005)

Once I read in a comment: "Nobody does Victorian like the Brits" and I generally agree both in writing and movie-making. Here I was agreeably surprised though by the way they handled Jane Austin's book. I was especially struck by the realism of the costumes, make-up, surroundings and scenery. Most of the time you get the impression that everyone in these movies goes to bed with make-up on and freshly done perms. And what's worse, they get up the same way. Here you get a freshness that we are not used to in Victorian movies.
This may have a downside off course. Pride and Prejudice being a love story, everything being clean and beautiful adds to the beauty of that feeling. Fortunately here they managed to maintain the magic of the love story nonetheless. Both main characters Elisabeth and Darcy help us getting in this romantic mood. Whereas the music is the finishing tough as to this mood setting.
By making a novel into a movie one always looses aspects off course. The book being filled with information, you'll often get the feeling "Hey, here they forgot something". This movie was off course not able to be as complete as for example the 1995 mini series. All energy was put in the main characters Elisabeth and Darcy, whereas other characters are less present. All this does influence the explanation of 'Pride and Prejudice'.
But there's only one aspect of the movie that I did not appreciate: the way the Bingly character was portrayed. Bingly is supposed to be a good hearted, well educated, elegant young man worth of the love of the equally elegant and beautiful Jane. Here I get the feeling that Bingly is more of a simpleton then a good hearted guy.
Nonetheless this doesn't in any way ruin the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it is very likely to get into my DVD-collection.