posted on Monday, October 17, 2005 12:01 PM
by
Endie
"First Impressions"
Every now and then, I preface a post with something along the lines of "I don't normally use this as a 'what i did today', diary-type thing...", and then proceed to do exactly that. This is just such a post.
I saw the new film version of Pride and Prejudice at the weekend. When the other half reads this, it will come as a bit of a surprise to her, as she doesn't know that I did such a thing. I have certain tastes that do not apply across the entirety of my household, and one of them is for film and TV versions of Miss Austen's works. Another, not unrelated, is for romantic comedies: I have a remarkably high tolerance for films with John Cusack in them. This tolerance is not universally shared. So I watch such things in my own time, when our working and leisure hours do not coincide.
Anyway, I have read reviews of this latest version which express at best mixed opinions about it. These usually involve unfavourable comparisons of Matthew MacFadyen with Colin Firth who, thanks to the diaries of Ms Jones, has become somewhat confused with the character of Mr Darcy in recent years. In fact, I found MacFadyen an excellent Darcy. Normally, Darcy is portrayed in such a way that it is perfectly obvious to the even the most obtuse observer that he is quite taken with Elizabeth, and with Firth, I got the impression at times that Darcy really was just a bit shy. MacFadyen has Darcy's character come across as genuinely blunt and rude on occasion, and one can see that he really doesn't want to like someone from such an awful family. The first hints at a weakening resolve are filmed with a wonderful lightness of touch - quite literally on one occasion - and one sees real expenditure of effort on his part
There are weaknesses: a few too many additions to the original text which seem to be added for purely comedic value. While this worked - and was probably wholly necessary - in Jackson's reworkings of the Lord of the Rings, the idea that Pride and Prejudice needed some sort of an injection of humour is a little like Spielberg deciding that Schindler's List wouldn't be properly horrifying unless he added some extra, wholly fictional violence.
Also, if you are going to make Kiera Knightley a believable Elisabeth, then you need someone spectacular to play her distinctly prettier sister Jane. Talulah Riley is undoubtedly very pretty, but a degree of suspension of disbelief is needed regarding why she is everybody's consistent first choice when she is competing with the sheer presence of Knightley.
Anyway, mock or scorn if you will, but I preferred this Pride and Prejudice not just to the 1995 mini-series, but also to the 1940 Olivier/Garson version.