Pride and Prejudice

Review by Clint Morris

By title, by nature. Pride, because you're shelling over bread for something meaty and meaningful (after all, it's a celluloid adaptation of a literary classic) and conceitedly not produced by the Happy Madison troupe.

But also, Prejudice, because that's what you'll irrefutably be feeling pre-show about watching anyone other than Colin Firth (the star of the enormously popular BBC mini-series version) prance around in Mr Darcy's sinuous cape.

Granted, such an avowal doesn't apply to this reviewer. I was simply playing the wife's handbag for the day - attending a session that more resembled an afternoon meeting at the community women's league - so can't take credit for my judicious choice of film, and as far as being partisan to this new Darcy character - I was fairly non-aligned on the subject.

Because - and here comes the shocker - this was my first introduction to (shock horror!), and watch your girlfriends face artlessly come alive as she reads this bit, the world of Pride and Prejudice, so I didn't care much about who was playing the film's cloak-wearing male lead, nor how condensed this film version would be to the BBC mini-series version.

In fact, as long as it was over quick enough - come on guys, it's a costume drama, just how endurable could it be? - I'd be happy.

Yet, like those that came into the film claiming 'Colin Firth is the only, and will always be the only, Mr Darcy' I was forced to eat my words. For here's a film that's been dipped thrice in such a deep punnet of eminence and superiority that it's hard not to like - possibly even love.

My wife tells me the story has been condensed quite a bit from the popular 6-hour BBC mini-series, but that all the best stuff's still here.

This is the gist of the yarn for the others - um, the guys - out there who're not familiar with the yarn: It's 1917, five sisters - Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet are living in Georgian England, and hold the fate of their estate in their hands.

When their father (Donald Sutherland) eventually dies, a dimwit distant cousin will inherit their house, so the family's future happiness and security is dependant on the daughters making good marriages.

Elizabeth (the gorgeous Keira Knightley) seems the least likely to hook up ("Believe me, men are either eaten up with arrogance or stupidity" she utters in the film), but when the quiet-but-charming Mr Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen) enters her life, things start to take an eventful and surprising turn.

With lavish production values, incredibly good pacing (only gazed at the watch once), and more sparks between MacFadyen and Knightley than a wonky power cord wedged between a toasted-sandwich maker, Pride and Prejudice is an old-style yarn that can enchant even the most sceptical of viewers.

Bravo, bravo.

4 out of 5

Pride and Prejudice
Australian release: Thursday the 20th of October, 2005.
Cast: Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn.
Director: Joe Wright.
Website: Click here.

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