A movie tailored to modern teens, methinks

Rating: Null/10 (4 December 2005)

I really wanted to like the movie; I even dragged my husband along -in the afternoon. I really was in the mood, but I was so disappointed. Pride and Prejudice resonates today, I think, because the most worthy girl gets the best man; not the most beautiful girl, for we all know rich and powerful men love beautiful women. (Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau used to walk into a room and pick out the most beautiful woman, airhead or not, and talk to her all night).P and P is a fantasy we like because Lizzy is 'only tolerable.' It's her mind that is superior. She makes the perfect match for Darcy because, like himself and like Darbyshire, she is a perfect balance of animal energy and civility. It would be hard being an atistocrat's wife (see Kennedy wife) and you do believe that LIzzy and Darcy would make a perfect couple. Knightley's Lizzie is too beautiful and too impetuous. She's even rude to both her parents! This LIzzie and Darcy would be a disaster, once the hormones had cooled down. I can see her dancing naked in the rain in Permberly and being locked in a wing by Darcy for the rest of her life. (Like Margaret Trudeau, the free spirit and beautiful wife of Trudeau, who lost it under the pressure.) And the dumbed down dialogue, eek. and when Knightley does utter classic lines, she sounds exactly like Jennifer Ehle. McFayden( is that the spelling) has a nice physique (I grant you that :) but he does not have Firth's pipes. You need a sexy voice to make the 'courtship' dialogue seem sexy, I think. But maybe I"m old fashioned...