Fearless Writer ... Reviews

Stars: Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn
Director: Joe Wright

By far the best loved and most famous of Jane Austen's novels, Pride & Prejudice has been subject to umpteen adaptations both on film and television – including an Indian interpretation by director Gurinder Chadha with Bride & Prejudice. So why do we need another one?

It's a question that might as well be rhetorical – filmmakers keep creating new versions of it for the same reason that people reread the novel three or five or ten times. It's just a terrific tale that people want to relive again and again.

And let's relive it once more, for the sake of getting a synopsis into this review. The Bennets are a fairly well-to-do family living in country England. Mr Bennet (Sutherland) and his wife (Blethyn) have only managed to churn out daughters, which means than when Mr Bennet goes to the big farmhouse in the sky, his estate will pass on to the nearest male relative (who we'll meet later). Knowing this, Mrs Bennet is very keen to see her daughters married to advantage.

The two eldest daughters, Jane (Pike) and Elizabeth (Knightley), appear to have the best marriage potential, being both intelligent and attractive. So when the rich Mr Bingley (Simon Woods) and his equally pecunious friend Mr Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) arrive in town, matchmaking is inevitable. Following a ball, there appears to be definite chemistry and potential wedding bells between Jane and Mr Bingley, but while there is a certain physical attraction between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, their personalities clash.

Adding to the fun and games is the handsome soldier Mr Wickham. He and Darcy appear to have a history, and whatever went down in their mysterious past, it has left bad blood between them.

Enter Mr Collins, reverend, cousin to the Bennet sisters and inheritor of Mr Bennet's estate. Unattractive and boringly stable in thought and action, his eye is initially drawn to Jane, but upon learning from Mrs Bennet that Jane is expecting a proposal from Mr Bingley, his attentions shift to Elizabeth. He makes a decidedly unromantic proposal, which the willful Lizzy turns down in no uncertain terms. Mrs Bennet is horrified and entreats her husband to talk some sense into his daughter. But in what is probably the movie's (and the book's) best scene, Mr Bennet tells Elizabeth that if she does not marry Mr Collins her mother will never speak to her again ... and he will never speak to her again if she does.

The door is now open for Elizabeth and Mr Darcy to discover their love for one another, but between his reticence and her youthful impulsiveness it's a tortured process. There are other angst-filled subplots to be unravelled as well, such as youngest daughter Kitty's shotgun elopement with Mr Wickham and Mr Bingley's abrupt termination of his courtship with Jane.

This is a quality cast by any measure and all the actors clearly have a good grasp on their characters. Knightley conveys Elizabeth's sharp-minded independence, Macfadyen plays Mr Darcy as a noble man who values manners and propriety above all else, Brenda Blethyn draws out Mrs Bennet's absurd hypocrisy and Sutherland gives us a benevolent but ultimately wise Mr Bennet. That said, the casting is not thoroughly ideal – even in full costume Knightley looks altogether too modern for the role (a younger Emma Thompson would have made the perfect Lizzy) and Sutherland can't quite get his American tongue around English vowels. But this new iteration of Pride & Prejudice is still a joy to watch, because director Joe Wright obviously understands the material he is working with – and when you're talking an Austen adaptation, that is absolutely essential.

VERDICT: 4/5

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5/5 The Empire Strikes Back
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3/5 Revenge of the Sith
2/5 Attack of the Clones
1/5 The Phantom Menace