Frankly, it seemed both absurd and risky to revisit Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.
The classic 1813 novel has been mined so many times before — notably in the acclaimed 1995 BBC mini-series, which catapulted Colin Firth into a princely state — that you worry the gems had all been dug out, polished and presented.
Wrong! British filmmaker Joe Wright (celebrated for directing the BBC mini-series Charles II: The Power & The Passion) discovered a fresh angle on the story in Deborah Moggach’s crisp, compact screenplay.
That angle is deceptively simple: Focus the romantic story on Elizabeth, the independent-minded, 20-year-old Bennet sister.
And reduce the obsession with Mr. Darcy, the role that Firth infused with such sexual potency.
Given that Lizzie is said to be an autobiographical version of Austen, that shift in focus is relevant — especially because a film version telescopes the novel down to its essentials.
Then Wright cast brilliantly. Keira Knightley is luminescent as Lizzie. She flashes the correct mercurial mix of intelligence, spirit, sensuality and stubbornness that made the character the heroine of the first modern English novel. Her choices threaten the Bennet family’s economic and social status. This film gives that its proper perspective.
Knightley makes Lizzie so vital that you feel the story is taking place today, not in the late 1700s. That is crucial for a costume drama. It should not feel stuffy, decayed or acted-out. It needs to feel alive. This one does.
Critically, Knightley holds her own in intimate scenes with the two major talents playing her parents: Brenda Blethyn as her mother and Donald Sutherland as her father. Both are wonderful to watch (although the sound recording for Sutherland could have enhanced his dialogue).
Knightley, particularly in the penultimate scene with Sutherland, breathes the same air as the masters.
Other key performers include Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy (his brooding presence is effective although his screen time is reduced), Simon Woods as Mr. Bingley (charm soured by weakness), Tom Hollander as Mr. Collins (odious yet not to be despised) and Judi Dench as Lady Catherine (superb in capturing the story’s class prejudices). The other Bennet sisters are effectively played by Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Talulah Riley and Carey Mulligan.
This Pride & Prejudice is also beautifully shot on location at a series of stunning English manors. Wright found a way to shoot them as functioning houses, not museum pieces.
For Longbourn, the Bennet family house, he used Groombridge Place near Tunbridge Wells. Introduced in a breathtakingly long, opening tracking shot, the house is so lived in you sense the smells as well as the sights and sounds.
So, with all this accomplishment, all this vitality, why is my rating less than perfection?
Because Wright, a first-time feature director, occasionally falters.
No more so than with the sappy, tacked-on ending (because of pressure from American distributors).
The British hit version ends with that riveting Knightley and Sutherland scene. The North American version goes on into a cloying fantasyland. What a shame!
BOTTOM LINE
Surprisingly and sometimes impressively, Joe Wright freshens up the classic and brings out the best in Keira Knightley. So, yes, there is reason to revisit the nubile Bennet girls and their prospective husbands.
