Pride and Prejudice (2005)

[Guest me_retno]

nope. I hate the victorian period and movies and books that revolve around it. I don't know why, but maybe because when I was younger my mother used to rent boring love stories about women falling in love with a man above her "Class" and it always took place during the victorian era.

ehm... if you read Austeen's books carefully, you'd notice that the lead woman characters are not typical for that period of time. Esp with Elizabeth Bennet, which is supposedly known for her "lively mind", and her opposition to common view that girls should get married to higher class man (she's sometimes deliberately joked abt this w Jane or her dad/mom). All women characters in her books are portraited that way or at least have "strong mind" and mostly are just ordinary girls (not so much pretty etc..etc..). That's one reason why I adore Austeen a lot.

Agree that Austeen can not be considered as a romantic cos she mostly skipped "classic romantic parts" in her books, e.g. marriage, kissing, etc... she usually described the attraction process in details but then rapidly ended the stories.

I love BBC version so much ::. Plan to see this movie but my guess it's a bit lively version than BBC or the book.

[Guest allie]

Watched the movie. I thought it was a bit rushed -- but I guess it had to be because there was so much to fit in!

My mum preferred the BBC series, but I didn't mind the movie. It was good. I just wish some of the characters could have been in it more, e.g. Wickham, Georgiana (spelling? Darcy's sister).

Mr Bingley was adorable though.

[Guest Katrina]

i watched this film in Cardiff last month... it was very good indeed. very entertaining...well...except there were some parts that Keira talks toooo fast, and i was left because of talking and nudging my friend. haha...

and Mr Darcy!!! Hot!!! well, from what i had wacthed, there is no kising scene at all, the the movie ended with Lizzy telling her daddy that she loved mr darcy sooo much without realizing she was... and Mr darcy was walking up and north outside of their house, with the mum and the big sister gossipping at the window, peeping mr Darcy outside the house, they said something like this...

'i thought that Lizzy hate 'im!'

'yes..i was thinking the same thing.'

etc..etc...well, that's not accurate but quite like that.

a must watch, definitely...and may i suggest In her Shoes? *off topic.. it's awsome!

[Guest what the HUH]

it was soooo goood! i loved it.

Matthew MacFadyen was HOT! he was verrrry good looking.

and i loved Mr. Bingley, he was such a cutie, especially when he was all hesitant on asking Jane to marry him in the end.

Mr. Collins-hilarious! SHORT, bad hair-cut, his voice..hahaha

Jane-somehow when i read the book i imagined a prettier Jane. IMO Keira seemed to be much more prettier.

Wickham-omg he's Orlando Bloom #2

im definitely getting this on dvd.

[Guest mariaclara]

Watched the movie. I thought it was a bit rushed -- but I guess it had to be because there was so much to fit in!

My mum preferred the BBC series, but I didn't mind the movie. It was good. I just wish some of the characters could have been in it more, e.g. Wickham, Georgiana (spelling? Darcy's sister).

Mr Bingley was adorable though.

I loved the movie; however, I did feel the same way about it lacking certain scenes that would've fleshed out the characters better. Most of them were definitely underdeveloped, especially Wickham and Lydia. But yeah, it's a movie so it only had a couple of hours to fit everything in. They did a good job though.

it was soooo goood! i loved it.

Matthew MacFadyen was HOT! he was verrrry good looking.

and i loved Mr. Bingley, he was such a cutie, especially when he was all hesitant on asking Jane to marry him in the end.

Mr. Collins-hilarious! SHORT, bad hair-cut, his voice..hahaha

Jane-somehow when i read the book i imagined a prettier Jane. IMO Keira seemed to be much more prettier.

Wickham-omg he's Orlando Bloom #2

im definitely getting this on dvd.

I'm definitely getting this on DVD too! Loved the ending!

By the way, I thought Keira Knightley did an excellent job portraying Elizabeth Bennet. The supporting cast was great too, especially Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethlyn, Tom Hollander and Judi Dench. Matthew Macfadyen was an adorable Darcy.

[Guest babygurldoc]

I loved the book n totally loved the BBC miniseries. This new one didnt really live up to the old one, kinda understandable.

Loved Colin Firth n Jessica Ehle, they were the perfect Lizzy n "Mr. Darcy."

The new version had better looking women for sure, the old one, some of them looked hidious. Ex: Mr. Bingley's sister, the one that like Mr. Darcy, ewww.

The actress that played Lydia, is she the one that played Julia's stepdaughter in "Stepmom"? If she is, I love that girl, she a great actress.

[Guest darae]

i loved this movie. Mr. Darcy had really beautiful blue eyes. i went to watch this on Veterans Day and i was in a packed theater surrounded by grandma's and grandpa's

[Guest papabear]

http://www.nationalreview.com/mathewes-gre...00511110823.asp

November 11, 2005, 8:23 a.m.

Same Jane

The latest Pride and Prejudice is charming, lively, and satisfyingly authentic.

Keira Knightley has a way of squinting — narrowing her eyes and looking simultaneously skeptical and perky — that I just can't believe they had invented in the early 19th century. This stands out solely because everything else about this production of Pride and Prejudice is so well-appointed, from the gently worn blue paint on the walls to the cotton lace on the pillows. Jane Austen's 1813 novel has been brought to the big and little screens many times before, but this new version, directed by Joe Wright, can't be beat. It is charming, lively, and satisfyingly authentic.

The story will be familiar from high-school English class, if not from prior productions. The Bennets have five daughters and no particular fortune; acquiring suitable husbands is a continuing concern. Pride and Prejudice follows the sisters through a season of courtships and confusions, focusing particularly on the second-oldest, Elizabeth (Knightly).

"Pride" is represented by the character of Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFayden). He is introduced into the village setting as a vastly wealthy sophisticate from the big city. MacFayden manages to give Darcy an intriguingly unreadable affect, blending melancholy with hauteur. Lizzie finds plenty to squint about. But as the story unfolds, with reverses and surprises, it turns out that there was more to Mr. Darcy than she suspected. The "Prejudice" was her own. This story is a rare one, because it turns out that a rich person is actually a good person. That doesn't happen much in contemporary storytelling.

Jane Austen's novel encompasses a very large cast of characters (five sisters, parents, suitors, friends, aunts and uncles and forgotten cousins). Someone attempting to skim through the book is going to start forgetting who's who, and a compressed two-hour film version faces a challenge. Director Wright has done a good job of choosing memorable faces, and giving each character enough space to establish himself.

Besides Knightley, the biggest names are Donald Sutherland as the girls' father, and Judi Dench as the fearsome Lady Catherine de Bourg. Dench brings to de Bourg the same delightfully terrifying qualities she displayed as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love. Sutherland is likewise excellent as Mr. Bennett, wearing a white wig and a vaguely distracted expression, as befits a man living in a household populated by some very excitable unmarried daughters. While he appears to offer stability (particularly contrasted with his wife, enjoyably played by Brenda Blethyn), Lizzie correctly calls his bluff when he is about to allow a giddy younger daughter to make a trip to London. It is the only way he will have peace, he says, and Lizzie asks, "Peace? Is that really all you care about?" That small exchange brings new depth to the character.

Smaller parts are also thoughtfully assigned, rescuing characters from being lost in the multitudes. An example is Mr. Collins, the class-conscious clergyman who stands to inherit the Bennett's home and comes shopping for a daughter to marry. He might well slip by unnoticed, but Tom Hollander artfully projects such a self-contained, self-important quality that every time he is on screen it's a sight worth savoring. Claudie Blakley, with her vulnerable demeanor and memorable nose, is a similarly good choice for Charlotte, Lizzie's best friend and Collins' substitute bride.

Yet in a scene between Lizzie and Charlotte we get one of the film's occasional flaws. After Lizzie turns down Collins's proposal, Charlotte accepts it. Lizzie is astounded that her friend could marry such a tedious fellow, but Charlotte explains that her expectations of marriage are less romantic than Lizzie's. So far so good — but in the script, Charlotte ends by insisting to Lizzie, "So don't judge me! Don't you dare judge me!"

Clang. That's the kind of detail, like the narrowed eyes, that just doesn't ring true to the era. Nor does it work when Lizzie says of her beloved, "He and I are so similar, we're both so stubborn," nor when Darcy calls his beloved (brace yourself) "Goddess divine."

But these are small complaints in a film which is, overall, delicious. Wright has not tried to reinterpret, update, or improve on Jane Austen. He trusted the material to be strong enough to stand on its own. Two hundred years of readers would agree.

— Frederica Mathewes-Green writes regularly for NPR's Morning Edition, Beliefnet.com, Christianity Today, and other publications. She is the author of Gender: Men, Women, Sex and Feminism, among other books.

[elizabeth]

I just saw the preview for this movie and it looks really intersting. I want to see this movie.

[melkimx]

aghhhhhhhh no spoilers! (can you have spoilers if you already know the plot?) the movie hasn't come out where i live... one rather sketchy movie theater in the vicinity DID premiere a movie called "pride and prejudice," but it turned out to be a totally different version released a few years ago. how misleading is that?

[Guest glory]

i saw it last week- i thought it was a fairly good adaptation for a 2hr movie.

sure things were missing and some scenes were glossed over but some things has to be sacrificed to make it into a 2hr film.

i also saw a TV interview with the director and he said, his goal was to focus solely on Lizzie, that that was his twist or contribution to the remaking of P&P.

of course the Firth and Ehle version is better but that's also about 6 hours long! obviously having more time to be faithful to the book.

I though KK was fine as EB but even trying to look plain, she still looks beautiful. i always imagined EB as not an ugly woman but not beautiful. somewhat plain looking but with infecteous spirit, smart, ahead of her time and forthrightness- that's what Darcy is attracted to or becomes attracted to.

on the other hand, MM was a hotty Darcy!!! 'nuff said.

[Guest ★rainydays★]

lol It's really funny cause Keira talks about that in interviews about P&P. She wasn't allowed to wear makeup or anything thaht would really show her beauty, and, at one point, she almost lost her hair cause it burned off during hair and makeup (which is why she cut it short after). It's really cute when she talks about it and how desperate she was for the role, only to be turned down cuase she's too beautiful to be Elizabeth.

I think the reason her hair was short and she wore a wig was because she was preparing for her role in "Domino"... which required her to cut her hair really short.

I've seen all three versions of Pride & Prejudice now, and my goodness, this is so the ultimate love story. Haha. I think MacFadyen was an absolutely gorgeous Darcy. It was so him. He wasn't drop dead gorgeous or a heartthrob, so it made him even more appealing... his attraction came from his essence, not just his physical presence (which is amazing in itself because he's so TALL!). =)

There are a few scenes that just completely left me dazed. The scene at dawn in the mist. The scene where he interupts her writing the letter. The proposal. The end (even though I see the anachronisms). =)

I thought the BBC version was terribly miscast, except for Colin Firth. And in the 1940 version, although I love Greer Garson and her performance, I thought she was too old to be Elizabeth. In that movie, it felt like she was the eldest.

It's been a while since a movie made me this giddy, but I'm loving it.

[Guest papabear]

aghhhhhhhh no spoilers! (can you have spoilers if you already know the plot?) the movie hasn't come out where i live... one rather sketchy movie theater in the vicinity DID premiere a movie called "pride and prejudice," but it turned out to be a totally different version released a few years ago. how misleading is that?

Hrm, the only spoilers would be the small changes made to the story... melkimx needs her P&P fix.

[Guest VersusVillain]

I'll skip this one. I like chick flicks, but not that much.

Kind of looks like pointless fluff to me.

[Guest IC_Bananas]

i first found out about this on sparknotes. there was an ad for it there.

i love the book, but i don't know if i wanna watch the movie.

[Guest WhiteMorningStar]

I enjoyed the movie tremendously. The movie was quite authentic and delightful to watch!

Keira had this weird squint thing going on that really did seem out of that "era" as I read it in that critique.... and also that part where Charlotte asked that Elizabeth "dare" not to judge her which for a moment broke the illusion for me because that phrase seems so out of the victorian "era" but ahhhhh.

It just felt too rush for me... esp. in the beginning... when did Mr. Darcy even have the chance/time to fall in love with Elizabeth???

All in all, it was well done but personally, i prefer the BBC version much better.

[_ambrosia]

Definitely going to see this next weekend because this week's all about HP! But it's sad to know not many people enjoyed it, but it's okay... I still love the story.

[Guest WhiteMorningStar]

Ahhhhh. I love this book. I haven't felt this giddy about any romance novel in a long, LONG time. And by long, I'm thinking 10+ years.

It actually makes me wanna start dating again. HAH! That'd make my mother happy!

[melkimx]

-kismet- yeah, it was hard knowing that both HP and P&P were out the same weekend! i ended up ditching my one movie per week habit and went for HP on friday and P&P saturday. great movie weekend for me... both were awesome.

but Charlotte explains that her expectations of marriage are less romantic than Lizzie's. So far so good — but in the script, Charlotte ends by insisting to Lizzie, "So don't judge me! Don't you dare judge me!"

Clang. That's the kind of detail, like the narrowed eyes, that just doesn't ring true to the era. Nor does it

oh noooo i'm quoting from national review! hehe. i never noticed any eye-squinting going on, but i had the exact same reaction to that particular scene. at certain times in the movie, i just wanted to be able to leaf through the script and cross out certain lines and scenes b/c it was so apparent that they were made up by the screenwriters. i didn't mind when it was done to provide a laugh b/c truthfully, if they'd stuck to the book for humor it probably wouldn't have been considered funny. but other times i felt the writers were trying to provoke emotion and they went a bit overboard w/ it.

BUT overall, i still really, really liked the movie. i started replying here exactly what i thought about it and it got so ridiculously long i just posted it as a xanga entry instead hehe i'm crazy. anyway, if you're a real hardcore austen fan and purist, i guess you'll find the BBC version preferable -- i think their adaptation was more "to the book." but i don't mind a few diversions from the novel to make it appeal to modern taste, provided they're semi-believable.

did you guys prefer keira's elizabeth to jennifer ehle's? how about matthew macfadyen's darcy to colin's?

[Guest mariaclara]

did you guys prefer keira's elizabeth to jennifer ehle's? how about matthew macfadyen's darcy to colin's?

I definitely preferred Keira Knightley over Jennifer Ehle. Even though her face was still too pretty for the role, her acting was superb in my opinion. She was able to capture Elizabeth's youth and spirit, which I felt Ehle wasn't able to. Ehle just acted a bit old to me. Also, Knightley's figure is closer to the Lizzie in the book whose figure was "light and pleasing". As for Darcy, I thought both Firth and Macfadyen were great in different ways. Firth was more haughty while Macfadyen was more vulnerable, and you could tell that he was more in love. One thing that dissatisfied me in the BBC miniseries was the final proposal. I didn't feel that there was enough emotion on Darcy's part. He was too dry, wheras Macfadyen DEFINITELY showed great emotion at the end. He was so romantic.