Pride and Prejudice (2005) Review

Oh, where do I begin? How do I describe this movie? How do I compare it to the perfect-in-every way 1995 version? How do I express my delight in watching it, my indignance (is that a word?) in the changes that the audacious screenwriters made, my mixed feelings when it ended? How do I convey how much I love the music and scenery, and how frustrated I am that I can't find the gorgeous "Liz on Top of the World" on Mixpod to add to my playlist? How do I politely express that it was NOT my Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen may very well be rolling in her grave?

I'll just have to do my best.

So... Pride and Prejudice 2005, a.k.a. the Keira Knightley version, a.k.a. the Matthew Macfadyen version, a.k.a. The New One. I usually just refer to it as P&P 05. :)

I suppose I should really begin by apologizing for the number of pictures in this post. For all of you who have slow connections, I do hope it doesn't take too long to load!

I suppose I should begin with the first picture that appeared on my post. (I chose a grand and glorious lot of stills from Google Images, and then uploaded them, and Blogger randomly arranged them according to its own whimsical whimsy.) I should also warn you that, like my last P&P review, this post will be entirely subjective and may or may not offend fans of P&P05. I will be polite. I promise. But I will also be entirely truthful.

The above picture of the Meryton ball is a good capture of three characters. Snooty Miss Bingley, melancholy Mr. Darcy, goofy Mr. Bingley. Because Dr. Harrison's Simon Woods' version of Mr. Bingley WAS rather goofy. I got the impression that he didn't have very much rattling around in his head. And though Kelly Reilly's Miss Bingley was a real snob ("Oh for heaven's sake, are we to be invaded by every Bennet in the country?") she didn't capture the essence of the character the way Anna Chancellor did. But she was "handsome", as she is described in the novel. Win!

Arthur Clennam Matthew Macfadyen's portrayal of Mr. Darcy, though...

Okay, I have to say that my heart just melted at this scene in the rain. While it was a little strange that Mr. Darcy just popped out of nowhere as soon as Elizabeth took shelter under the columns (was he stalking her???) his "uncivil" proposal was pretty close to perfect. When she said, "I don't understand," and he shot back, "I love you"... well, my sentimental little heart went into raptures. The look on his face when she (vehemently) said "no" was not unlike a puppy out in the cold. This scene above all others made me like Mr. Darcy.

However, all that said, he really didn't insult her the way he was supposed to. In fact, he even apologized a couple of times before he said anything bad about her family. So her furious reaction was a bit unwarranted. "And those are the words of a gentleman. From the first moment I met you, your arrogance and conceit, your selfish disdain for the feelings of others made me realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry." Um, he really wasn't being arrogant and conceited. Sure, he said she wasn't handsome enough to tempt him at the Meryton ball. He separated her sister and Bingley, and though that seemed unforgivable, it wasn't because of his "complete disdain for the feelings of others". It was because he really thought Bingley was making a mistake--and he had no idea how much Jane loved Bingley. (Here I go on another of my Defend Mr. Darcy rants again...)

But Mr. Darcy is supposed to be proud. True, he's not as bad as he appears to be (he does change, but we the readers also come to understand him better) but he IS supposed to be arrogant and cold. This Mr. Darcy just looked like somebody who had been left out of a game. He came across as shy and withdrawn, not haughtily reserved. Point in his favor: he DID smile a little more than Colin Firth did. But just a little. In short, Matthew Macfadyen is Arthur Clennam and Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy. And don't get me started on David Rintoul.

Lady Harriet Cumnor Rosamond Pike made a beautiful Jane Bennet. This time, the directors hit the nail on the head. Jane is supposed to be gentle, withdrawn and lovely. You could plainly see how she felt about Mr. Bingley, yet she didn't make a big show of her emotions. As Elizabeth tells Darcy, "My sister rarely even tells her true feelings to me!" Her reaction when Mr. Bingley asked her to marry him was so sweet--naturally Jane would cry when she was asked to marry the man she loved! "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes."

Isn't this part cute? Anne said she really liked Jane's hair in this movie--Susannah Harker in P&P95 "always looked like she stepped out of a box of curl papers". Well, I have to say that I thought the hairstyles rather inaccurate for the time period. Okay, maybe Jane's hair wasn't perfectly coiffed all the time, but Lizzy would NOT have been wandering around out in public with her hair down. Ladies just didn't do that. It was considered immodest once a woman was grown up.Hmm. This picture brings me to my next point. I really, really didn't care for Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet. I know she's pretty. I know she has "fine eyes". And yes, her hair is beautiful (even though it shouldn't have been so flyaway). But frankly, all I could like about her was her looks. She was too bold and forward for Lizzy. Lizzy is spirited, yes, but she's not disrespectful. I mean, does it seriously fit with her character to shout at her family "For once in your life, leave me alone!"? Nuh-uh. Yes, she showed a bit of Elizabeth's outdoorsy personality (I really loved "Liz on Top of the World", as I told you) but her mannerisms and expressions and sitting on a swing in the barnyard, barefoot (?) were just completely out of character. Sorry, Keira fans.

Now about the rest of the Bennet family... Donald Sutherland was the most blah Mr. Bennet I've ever seen. (Wow, I'm being ruthless here.) His saving grace was that one scene at the Netherfield ball, when he's comforting poor embarrassed Mary in the hall. I really liked that--it showed Mr. Bennet's loving, fatherly side. The 1995 version focuses more on his wit and sardonic remarks.

Brenda Blethyn played Mrs. Bennet far too sympathetically. As I said in my P&P95 post, Mrs. Bennet isn't supposed to be sympathetic. I liked the character she played, but it wasn't Mrs. Bennet. Mary was okay--kind of dull, but that's the way she's supposed to be. I was disappointed they left out a lot of her pompous remarks, but hey, time constraints.

Oh, and a total aside--this picture really makes me laugh. Mrs. Bennet's goofy grin, Mr. Bennet's Jiggy Nye-ish expression, Mary's boredom and Elizabeth's mischievous grin are just funny. And the camera angle makes this shot look like something out of Gulliver's Travels--Mr. Darcy appears to be a giant in the midst of Lilliputians.

Ada Clare Carey Mulligan made a sweet Kitty, but she was way too silly for my taste. I know Kitty is supposed to be silly. But in that one scene at the Netherfield ball where she and Lydia are holding wine glasses and laughing uproariously... um, that was the way she behaved throughout the entire movie. Giggle. Snort. Giggle. Either Kitty was supposed to be perpetually drunk, or she was just an idiot. I'm leaning towards the second. But Kitty IS supposed to be an idiot. So I guess I liked this interpretation of her. Sort of.

Jena Malone made a good Lydia. She was definitely younger than Julia Sawalha, and she looked more like a boy-crazy teenager. Rupert Friend as Mr. Wickham also played the role of slimeball-pretending-to-be-charming quite nicely. I disliked Adrian Lukis' Wickham from the very beginning, but Rupert Friend's Wickham seemed trustworthy at first. I liked the cute little scene in the ribbon shop, even if it wasn't in the book.

Speaking of cute scenes, I really liked the part where Darcy and Bingley are rehearsing Bingley's proposal to Jane. It really helped develop how Mr. Darcy's character had changed, and how he and Bingley get along together. Delightful!

Osborne Hamley Tom Hollander played Mr. Collins rather well, I thought. "It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable." :) He was quite different from the Mr. Collins of '95, but then again Jane Austen didn't really write Mr. Collins as an oily character. He's supposed to be pompous, dry and dull, but not slimy. So this Mr. Collins was a little more true to the book (except for his height, right Melody?)--however, I was disappointed that we didn't see more of him. Mr. Bennet's "and I will never see you again if you DO" wasn't really justified, IMHO, because we really didn't have any reason to hate Mr. Collins. Sure, he was boring, but he wasn't awful. You could understand Charlotte's agreeing to marry him.

This brings me to another thing I really liked. Charlotte's explanation of why she was going to marry Mr. Collins was extremely well done. Instead of sitting there thinking, "Has she gone off her rocker?" I was nodding and, though feeling sorry for poor Charlotte, understanding why she accepted his proposal. He really was her only chance at a comfortable home, and she was tired of being a burden to her parents. At twenty-seven, she was past her bloom (hmm, isn't that reminiscent of another Jane Austen heroine?)

Georgiana Darcy was too bubbly, I felt. Plus, she looked about 13 years old, when she is supposed to be 16. Georgiana is supposed to be so quiet and shy... Tamsin Merchant didn't do half as good a job as Emilia Fox in '95. (I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll stop comparing, I really will!) All in all, I was disappointed in Georgiana. I did, however, like her rapport with Darcy, even if it wasn't quite in character. You really got the feeling that they were a close brother and sister. I liked their little exchange about the piano. "My brother gave [the piano] to me. He shouldn't have."

"Yes, I should've."

"Oh, very well then."

"Easily persuaded, is she not?"

Oh, and the "knight in shining pajamas" scene, as Alexandra dubs it, was just... weird. Sorry, hopeless romantics. I really am one of your kind. But this wasn't really romantic, it was just silly. "Your hands are cold." Also, the scene at the end.... ick. My friend's younger brother refers to it as "the scary part", and I'm inclined to agree with him. Too much kissing! "Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy." Um. Wow. That's so... epic. Far better than, "dearest, loveliest Elizabeth," undoubtedly.

Sorry. *snaps out of sarcasm mode* I really did like this movie. It was a great film. No, I mean that. It was fun to watch, and the story moved at a good pace. Visually it was stunning. The cinematography was amazing, as was the music.

But it really wasn't Pride and Prejudice. It just wasn't. It wasn't my Pride and Prejudice. P&P is my favorite Jane Austen book, and this movie didn't do it justice. I think the real problem is that they tried to modernize it and make it appealing to today's viewers. And in doing so, they missed the point of P&P. The reason Jane Austen was such a brilliant writer--nay, a genius--was that she captured human nature. She wrote about people and how they related to one another. Times and fashions and language and societies change, but people do not. Any person, no matter what era they live in, can relate to Jane Austen's amazing characters. So when a filmmaker tries to "update" a classic story and change things around in order to please shallow moviegoers, that filmmaker has made a mistake. (Oops, here I go into one of my rants about how modern films are being watered down for viewers spoiled by too much TV...)

Really, I can't help thinking that at any moment someone is going to produce a piglet, and we'll all have to chase it.