Pride and Prejudice

I can’t stop feeling romantic!!
Really authentic romanticism in true literature sense
is abundant in this movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s
classic romantic comedy, which is not just love romance but also
love for the rough and beautiful nature .

Heroin Elisabeth (Keira Knightly) is so lively and
charming, such a knockout- can’t take eyes from her.
She is as seductive as young Winona Ryder, which is the best
compliment I can think of. Since Elisabeth is so
charming, she is more beautiful than her elder sister
Jane who is the belle of their five sisters in the
book. However, it doesn’t matter much here; I’ve been
in such a rapture and thrill to see how Elisabeth’s
charm sweeping through the screen and knock out the
hero Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) .

I would say this is better movie adaptation than Ang
Lee’s Sense and Sensibility which is also well done.
However, the novel itself is better than Sense and
Sensibility because in Pride and Prejudice, the period
background such as class difference between heroine and hero
actually creates the burden which is necessary for creating the thrill of romance, not to mention
Elisabeth is much more attractive character than in
the two sisters in Sense and Sensibility.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Pride and Prejudice
produced by BBC. However, at least for Mr. Darcy,
Macfadyen must be more credible than Collin Farth, who
played the role in BBC. Farth is more obviously sexy
and flashy, but I guess Macfadyen would be a better
choice since Mr. Darcy is handsome and intelligent, but also
awkward rooted from his pride. And for my
pleasure, Macfadyen looks like my dear Alan Rickman(younger
version) who played Collonell Brandon in Sense and
Sensibility!! Those guys must be a kind of the subtle
British sexy type, I guess.

Before I praise the supporting cast, I have to praise
the beautiful English landscape which is the eloquent
background of the romance: green hills, cliffs, waters, sudden rains, sunrise and so on. Those are can’t be
totally tamed just as humans souls can’t be.

Judy Dench is superb as usual, as arrogant Lady
Catherine, Brenda Blethyn provides very funny scenes as the sister’s stupid mother, whose only interest is
getting her daughters married. And yes, beautiful
period settings cleverly provide both romantic and
comic background well: high waist empire dresses and
pre-Victorian hypocrisy, for example.

Donald Sutherland is also good as sarcastic but warm
father of the sisters, and as Lydia, the most stupid
one of the sisters, Jena Malone perfectly embodied the
foolishness of a teenage officer-crazed girl
( nowadays, young people in the twenties can be as
stupid as her, ha!)

I just love this movie as much as the book: pretty
distant and sharp observation on human natures and at
the same time very romantic in a convincing way.
Elisabeth and Mr. Darcy finally got together, as they
talked, the sun was slowly rising, just like their
misunderstanding and prejudice of each other melting
away. How romantic!! I actually cried….which is so
rare to me as a jaded movie buff.

Of course, the book tells us more stuff and witticisms, but this has
done the best job as a 2.5 hour movie to
embody the romantic spirit of the book. The movie
actually did a better job to show Elisabeth’s love
towards Mr.Darcy slowly growing.