Pity About Donald Sutherland's Performance

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2008)

As soon as I saw Matthew Macfadyen's name as Mr. Darcy, I knew this was going to be good. It is brilliant. A classic story with some great actors.
Unfortunately, Donald Sutherland's performance was, in places, very poor. There was one important scene where his words were quite important to the story, and he simply mumbled them all - completely unintelligible. It really was bad, but fortunately he doesn't have a lot to say in other scenes.
I don't know why the director didn't ask him to say his lines again - perhaps Sutherland was playing the "I'm a famous actor" role and the director was too scared to insist on another take.
His elocution was put to shame by just about every one of the rest of the cast. Macfadyen, of course, speaks absolutely perfectly as does Kiera Knightley, so Sutherland's performance next to theirs was made to look even worse.
I wonder if there is something wrong with his top teeth - too large or badly fitting dentures? I also noticed that in scenes where he has to laugh, he often covers his mouth as if he is ashamed of his top set of teeth. Very strange.
Anyway, try not to think about Sutherland's elocution or top teeth when you're watching this film - it really is brilliant.