Film Review
‘Pride and Prejudice’: Being a
Sassy Girl in a Ho-Hum World

By Olivia Farrow  (November 25, 2005)

Oh, Jane Austen. The name brings ecstasy to some, and is the bane of others. For certain teenagers, I’m sure it brings complete joy to the afternoon if they go home after school, put on a pot of Earl Grey, and flip through a few chapters of Austen or Bronte, like two or three Londoners who are put under house arrest. For still others, watching the movie is as close to Austen as you can get before you clock out.

As for the rest of the high school population, consisting mainly of the Y chromosome, even looking at this review will bring seizures or narcoleptic episodes. This movie adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, supposedly her “most cherished” masterpiece, is probably designed for those who, like myself, have the patience to watch a two-hour movie version of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy’s snits and quarrels, but are way too lazy…uh…I mean, busy to actually read the book.

Hopefully, this is the last adaptation of this magnum opus, this tour de force of people drinking tea, wine, and—gasp!--walking outside in the rain. Yes, in this version of the novel that has an outdoorsy type of quality to it, which I assume is to reflect the tumultuous emotions of the very ardent Elizabeth, and the supposedly pompous Mr. Darcy.

We watched the same couple in the chubby British version in Bridget Jones’ Diary, and in the Bollywood musical Bride & Prejudice, and also in the black and white Laurence Olivier rendering with your grandma. Or maybe you were forced to see the fall-asleep-in-the-couch-and-wake-up-freezing-cold-and-groggy five-hour BBC miniseries starring Colin Firth, who I guess was quite a catch back in the mid-90’s.

So Elizabeth Bennett is the second of five sisters who are shortly to run out of an income, because there is no male heir to get their father’s money. That’s always a problem in these old upper crust movies for literal minded people, because only .2 percent of the population actually had that much of an inheritance. Those who did have that cash were clearly running out of it from squandering it on castles and clothes, or it came from some unbelievably unusual source, like farming without slavery. Whatever. You’d think that their situation would make the five Miss Bennetts desperate to get the richest guy that jumped off the next carriage, but no.

All five of them, Jane, the eldest, most mature, and supposedly prettiest, and Elizabeth’s three younger sisters, the nerdy Mary and the two youngest, the flirty Catherine and Lydia, prefer finding someone they actually have the hots for.

This brings much aggravation to their poor mother, who wants them to shoot for the stars when it comes to getting the most money and best reputation out of a suitor, even if that means they’re the most boring dogs in the county. Mrs. Bennett tries to marry off her daughters to men in whom the girls have no interest, especially when she attempts to get Elizabeth engaged to the dull (and incredibly short) Mr. Collins, the man who is to inherit the Bennetts’ fortune by blood.

As for Keira Knightly who plays Elizabeth, her performance is getting mixed reviews. Some viewers I’ve talked with really like her in whatever she plays, whether it’s kicking the football in Bend It Like Beckam or crunking up Johnny Depp on an island in Pirates of the Caribbean. Those roles, like Miss Bennett, suggest a similar quality to what seems to be her personality: spunky, sassy, and a bit of something that rhymes with witch.

Others have a bit of loathing for her because of her lack of shrewdness and subtlety, which is what Miss Bennett is all about. As for the Austenaholics, they will find a problem with her bubbling self-confidence, which was fine in the contemporary Bend It, but as for the period movies,  is a bit too much. We know that Elizabeth Bennett is supposed to be spirited, but those who’ve read the book would find her pushing the definition. But hey, this movie isn’t for them, it’s for the mainstream Americans who couldn’t get tickets to Harry Potter and the Chalice of Mash Liquor.

Still, Kiera’s only 20, so she still has time to get more experience with the camera. Her chemistry with Matthew MacFayden’s  Fitzwilliam Darcy keeps the movie’s dialogue moving, which is what Jane Austen is all about; talking. And sipping tea and munching on crumpets.