PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005)

Pride and Prejudice (2005)



Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Jane. Austen. Two words which when taken together strike fear and apprehension into the hearts of men everywhere. Possibly the most inaccessible author to the male species, conversely Austen's work is celebrated and revered to an almost religious degree by ladies the world over(Edwards, 2005). What exactly this epic tale of unlikely romance in the face of Georgian class-issues does for a woman's psyche is still beyond him, and no amount of curiosity makes most men brave enough to go near any of her work - something even other movies, for example You've Got Mail, have acknowledged in the past.

So when AUTHOR was given the task of reviewing the latest movie version of what is possibly Austen's most famous novel, AUTHOR walked into the theatre ready to loathe every long bodice-filled minute of it(Edwards, 2005). To surprise however, while AUTHOR can't claim to share the same frighteningly… “passionate” (for want of a more appropriate phrase) reaction two of his female viewing companions seemed to experience from watching it, Joe Wright's interpretation of Pride & Prejudice wasn't the pretentious bore AUTHOR was expecting.

As AUTHOR has mentioned, doubtless most women who read this review will know the story backwards and will email him to point out all his errors, but for the benefit of you men folk out there AUTHOR will try his best to give you the lo down.

The Bennets are a moderately well-off, if slightly uncouth family living in late 18th century England. Mr. Bennet (Sutherland) is getting on in years and if he dies his estate will go entirely to a distant cousin, the weasly Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander) (www.metacritic.com). The only way to prevent this is if at least one of his daughters marries well, a goal which Mrs. Bennet (Blethyn) is determined to achieve at any cost. So, when the aristocratic Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) arrives in the area with his equally well-bred friend Mr. Darcy (MacFadyen), the women go into romance overdrive. While shy eldest sister Jane (Rosamund Pike) falls for the bumbling Bingley, the more independent and head-strong Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) clashes with the seemingly aloof and inaccessible Mr. Darcy. Could the verbal fencing between Elizabeth and Darcy be hiding their true feelings, and if it is, can it and the other sisters' relationships survive the rigid and snobbish class structure of the time?

This is director Joe Wright's first big screen outing, though you'd never guess it. On the other hand, it'd be hard to go far wrong on a novel adapted for stage and screen so many times before. Wright and scribe Deborah Moggach (with a little help from period movie expert Emma Thompson) have made a clever and funny film which once you swallow your apprehension, is far more engaging than you'd expect and far more interesting than most other movies set in the same era. It helps that Wright and his cinematographer Roman Osin have created what could possibly be one of the ...