Working Title Films, 2005
Keira Knightley
Talulah Riley
Rosamund Pike
Jena Malone
Donald Sutherland
When I first heard that there would
be a remake of Pride and Prejudice on the big screen my
first reply was “what, another
one?” I really
felt that this was a film that didn’t need to be
made. I was surprised then to be reminded that (with the
exception of course, of Bride and Prejudice) the last big
screen adaptation of the Jane Austen classic was the MGM/UA
production in 1940. The BBC adaptation for television in
1995 starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is so emblazoned
in peoples’ consciousness that for some, Colin Firth
is Mr Darcy. This is a story that is so well worn that
I wondered, could director Joe Wright take these characters
of old that have become so intertextualised into modern
literature and film (here I’m thinking namely Bridget
Jones) and inject them with new life? Of course the answer
is a resounding yes…
Some truly plum casting is to thank
for much of the film’s success. Lizzie Bennet is
the character that Keira Knightley was born to play. Although
Keira is far more beautiful than Lizzie was ever intended
to be, cast alongside the radiant Rosamund Pike as Jane,
the more aesthetically pleasing of the two sisters, Keira’s
Lizzie is pitched just right. In this film Keira Knighley
takes a leap in her career from beautiful English star
frequently donning a corset, to an accomplished lead actress.
She smoulders and sparkles all at once. There is a genuine
chemistry between Lizzie and Matthew MacFadayen’s
Darcy that escalates perfectly as the film progresses.
The
scene to rival ‘that scene’ from the BBC adaptation
(you know the one, Colin Firth in a wet t-shirt competition)
came by way of Darcy’s emergence through the fog and
it works, it actually works, with Matthew MacFadayen somehow
blending hyperbole with perfect understatement.
Brenda Blethyn as Mrs. Bennet is
as wonderful as one would expect Brenda Blethyn to be,
she is as overwrought and caricatured as any daughter sees
her mother. Tom Hollander plays Mr Collins perfectly. Although
not in the same league, Hollander’s Collins reminded
me of Daniel day Lewis’ performance as Cecil in the
Merchant and Ivory production of A
Room With a View.
A minute more in the twit’s company would have had
me lobbing popcorn at the screen. I also thought that Simon
Wood as Bingley was just adorable as the naïve, bumbling
but utterly loveable fop. For me, the most pleasantly surprising
performance came by way of Donald Sutherland as Mr Bennet.
I had heard previous commentators say that his Canadian
accent was not well enough disguised to be convincing but
I totally disagree. His performance was finely observed
as the tired, bemused patriarch living in a house dominated
by women in a society dominated by men. His relationship
with his daughter Lizzie is the most beautiful in the film.
There is a deep, amusing, colluding bond between the father
and daughter, which culminates in the most emotional scene
in the film as Bennet consents to Lizzie’s marriage
to Darcy. Bennet’s unspoken sense of loss is overarching:
he never imagined that any man could be good enough for
his daughter to love.
This version of Pride
and Prejudice is not all opulence and splendour. It’s yellow teeth
and muddy hems; it’s manure, rain and fog. It’s
escapist, it’s romantic and above all, it’s
a sumptuous piece of cinema.
