A good film.... but not the best P&P adaptation

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2005)

It was always going to be difficult to make Pride and Prejudice into a two-hour long film; on the whole, I thought this production made a decent stab at it - but I still prefer the BBC version.
The standard of the acting is generally quite high. For me, the standout performance was by Rosamund Pike as Jane. This may sound odd, as she only has a fairly small role, but I think this is one of the most difficult characters to play - nice, quiet and apt to think well of everybody, she could all too easily come across as a complete drip. In the BBC series, I always felt Susannah Harker's Jane was so serene you weren't sure if there was anything going on beneath the surface, but here Jane has some of Lizzie's intelligence and liveliness (whilst being less sure of herself), which makes their relationship as sisters more convincing. Keira Knightley acquits herself well as Lizzie - she certainly looks much more like my idea of the character than Jennifer Ehle did. However, I'm not sure she delivers the lines so well - she is apt to seem sharp and almost peevish, whereas Ehle in my view hit exactly the right note, teasing and amused by the follies of others, without being cruel. Darcy on the other hand, does not come across so well - admittedly, it's a difficult role, as he has almost nothing to say for the first half of the film - but he looks dead behind the eyes, and you don't feel any interest in him as a character at all.
Brenda Bletheyn and Donald Sutherland provide adequate support as Mr and Mrs Bennet, but don't reach the high standards of Alison Steadman and Benjamin Whitrow from the BBC series. A conscious decision seems to have been taken to make Mrs Bennet more sympathetic and less hysterical - at one point she basically explains to camera that she needs to get her daughters married to ensure their financial security - but I think this point was clear enough anyway, with the background to Mr Collins' visit. Instead, we lose much of the comedy of the character - and it ends up seeming rather unjust of Mr Darcy to accuse her of any want of propriety! Another consequence is that we also lose the feeling of a special bond between Lizzie and her father, as the rational beings in a house of frivolous, empty-headed women. Of the other characters, very little can be said, as they're on screen for so short a time. Wickham almost completely vanishes - and when he runs away with Lydia, we don't really understand what the fuss is about. Tom Hollander has a couple of nice comic moments as Mr Collins, but is given too few lines to express the character's verbose self-importance, and similar difficulties afflict Judi Dench's Lady Catherine. The worst case though is Mr Bingley, who just comes across as an incredibly irritating, upper-class twit.
My biggest issue with this film was the writing - one of the great joys of Austen is her elegant, lively dialogue - but here, modern phrases have been added, which jar horribly on the ear by comparison. I think the worst example was when Charlotte Lucas yelled at Lizzie, 'Don't you dare judge me!' after informing her of her engagement to Mr Collins, though perhaps Mr Darcy's use of the word 'relationship' in his first proposal was nearly as bad. The visual style of the film is quite unexpected for an Austen adaptation, and makes you think the director had confused the book with other great works of literature. Certainly, when pigs started wandering through the Bennet's house, I began to wonder whether I was watching 'Pride and Prejudice' or 'Far from the Madding Crowd', and Darcy's proposal in the pouring rain, and Elizabeth's rock climbing in the Peak District, seemed unnecessarily Bronte-esquire. However, these (rather pretentious) quibbles aside, it should be said that the film looks gorgeous, and I particularly liked the way they captured the lively, rough and ready atmosphere of the country ball, which contrasted well with the refinement of Bingley's party.
My criticisms of this film, then, are that it is shorter and takes a more modern (or less reverent) approach to the material than the BBC adaptation - which would probably be recommendations to all but the most devoted fans of the book. The generally high quality of the acting and beautiful sets and scenery elevate it above the level of most films that make it into the cinema. It's definitely worth seeing if you get the chance, but in my opinion, it's just not as good as the earlier TV version.