Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice (Director: Joe Wright)

PRIDE & PREJUDICE has ben nominated for 4 Oscars:

Best Actress: Keira Knightley
Original Score: Dario Marianelli
Costumes: Jacqueline Durran
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer


This is Wright's feature debut. Based on the classic Jane Austen novel, the adaptation comes from Deborah Moggach.

This is, by my count, the 10th incarnation of the Jane Austen novel, but oddly enough, only the third theatrical movie...counting this year's Bride & Prejudice. In this way, P & P personifies 2005 perfectly. This is the second adaptation of her novel this year. But, this is no Oliver Twist, which has eighty thousand versions and it was saw fit to make another one.

Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) is an educated girl of inferior birth, as the Austen world often portrays. She is the second oldest of many daughters in the Bennett family, headed by Mr. (Donald Sutherland) and Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn). The eldest, Jane (beautiful Rosamund Pike, who was stuck in Doom last I saw) is being introduced into society so that she may marry wealthy and put the family on the map. At a ball, she meets Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods), and Elizabeth meets the cold Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen). After his seeming abhorrence to dancing and decidedly frosty nature, Elizabeth vows to hate Mr. Darcy forever. It doesn't help that she keeps hearing horrible things about him, the last straw being that he encourages his friend Bingley not to marry her sister. And since this is the world of Austen, you can bet there's going to be a hundred complications, weird coincidences, and terrible misunderstandings before it's all through--I could fill another page with plot points.














What I enjoy about Austen's language is the ballet dance, or choreography, of words. When someone insults another person, there's a great range of emotion and tiptoeing around harshness but delivering the point. It's during a time when bluntness was quite frowned upon, and asking direct questions or expressing feelings boldly were improper. It's no wonder there are so many words in the English language. It's especially refreshing to see Keira Knightley, who has played damaged in two roles this year in The Jacket and Domino, play a smart, witty girl. Everyone is good here, especially Sutherland and Blethyn, who often steal their scenes from the main cast.

I liked 1995's Sense and Sensibility quite a bit, and this is right up there. Wright has a flair with the camera, and his cinematographer Roman Osin photographs the countryside beautifully. It's an enjoyable time.