Featured Film Review
'Pride and Prejudice' 2005 United International Pictures starring Keira Knightly, Matthew MacFayden and Brenda Blethyn Length: 127 mins
For those who are fans of the A&E/BBC version of Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, let me reassure you now - this is a different version but not in the way that you wouldn't enjoy it. I have to say now, I love the 95 version, but having seen this new version, I love this as well. Not more, just...I love this, too.
I didn't expect to, actually having listened to the Jane Austen Society pick apart details on NPR only served to make me want to see it more, and yes, it was distracting to sit there and think, "Well, I like this Jane better, but the younger sisters I liked better in the old version, I'm torn between Lizzies, they're pretty equal in my book, the Mr. Bingley was better in the old version but I like some of the things this Bingley did better, and the all-important Mr. Darcy, well, Colin Firth being who he is....Mr. Darcy, it was difficult to let myself like this one as much if not *gasp* dare I say it, more, than the other.
I liked that things were approached head-on in this version, and that they showed more of the run-down side of life in this one, that you get to see the servants humming as they bring ball finery into one girl's room while being shrieked at by the mother who truly needs to take a pill (the mother was equally good, I liked this one because she actually showed some redeeming qualities) and Mr. Bennet, well, again I'm torn. I loved the one in the old version, I loved his dry humor, his quiet suffering, I loved his way of commenting on how his wife's nerves have been his constant companion for 20+ years.
Whomever did the casting did a magnificent job in casting Donald Sutherland in the role of Mr. Bennet, if he couldn't do what the other actor (whose name, sadly, eludes me at the moment) was able to accomplish in the role, he was able to make the role his own and brought me to tears near the end of the movie in his approach to Lizzie, telling her that he couldn't give her up to anyone less worthy, with tears in his eyes releasing her with the love a father has for his daughter - his favorite daughter no less. They showed him showing affection to his daughters and even to his wife, and that, folks, made his character more human in my eyes. I loved seeing that side of the character.
Mr. Darcy and Lizzie together were volatile and though I wanted to see more of their transition from her interest and his disinterest to her disdain and his growing interest to his love and her rage right on to her stunned realization that he wasn't what she'd been led to believe and his hope that perhaps things had changed on her side right on to their mutual affection and deep love.
It's a story of hope, it's a story I never seem to tire of. I'm sure our Frenchie believes I watch only for Colin Firth *grin* and though he's a happy bonus in the older version, what I truly love about this story and now BOTH movies, is the story and the characterizations - I love to see these characters brought to life from a book I've loved since I was a pre-teen, and in a very real way these two movies are to me, like two children. I love them equally and each for their faults as much as for the things they excel at. I will have to see it a few more times to see if I can shake the whole, "OK I like him more in this and her more in that..." it's worth a shot, they're both well worth seeing.
Kira Knightly was Lizzie (also was Gwynywyfar in King Arthur) and Matthew Macfadyen whom I've never seen before this, was Mr. Darcy -
Great jobs, both of them!
Reviewer: Cerr
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