I purposefully put off watching the newest movie until after I had finished Pride and Prejudice. I had watched the older film versions of the movie when I was younger, and I new the main gist of the novel, but I knew that reading the story is always much better than the movie. When I finished, I talked to my Mother (whose favorite book is Pride and Prejudice) and told her that I wanted to watch the newest film with her. With that she complained that every version of the novel she has watched never portrayed the book accurately and certain characters were completely different. She mentioned once that Lady Catherine, Mr. Darcy's terribly mean aunt in the novel was often portrayed as a sweet old lady in the older films. Nonetheless we watched the newest film and we were both pleasantly surprised.
Unlike the earlier films Lady Catherine DeBourgh was no angel in this version of Pride and Prejudice and was brilliantly played beyond my imagining by Judi Dench. Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth was a bit off, coming across as though she cared a little more about the race for marriage then the book usually allowed, but in her more serious moments and in her powerful scenes with Darcy, she shone through brilliantly. Matthew MacFayden shines as a different kind of Darcy then the one we read about in the book. In a movie of two hours length, Darcy’s character must evolve a bit quicker than what is laid out in the book, and from the first minute we lay eyes on him, MacFayden manages to bring Darcy across as a shy but proud man who almost immediately gazes upon Lizzy admirably. This is necessary. If we developed Darcy at the speed he was developed in the book, the movie would probably be twice the length.
I of course prefer the book to the movie, but it did a brilliant job of portraying the complex characfers of Jane Austin's classic. The movie was good in it's own right, and if you have the time to watch it in the middle of your class load, like I did, I suggest doing so. But only after finishing!
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