Much to be proud of in Pride
Film’s one-liners true to spirit of Jane Austen Keira Knightley shines as witty sister Lizzie
Pride and Prejudice Starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Mcfadyen, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn. Directed by Joe Wright. Written by Deborah Moggach. 135 minutes. At major theatres. G Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has become, by adaptation, the Hamletof moviemakers. For a long time, after Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson put their stamp on the characters of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in 1940, filmmakers left it alone. But since 1980, there have been no fewer than six adaptations of the 1813 novel.
Re-writing Austen for the screen has become a respectable trade: Aldous Huxley wrote the 1940 adaptation and Fay Weldon wrote the 1980 miniseries. Actor Colin Firth made the role of Mr. Darcy his own in the 1995 miniseries and Aishwarya Rai took Elizabeth into another culture in Gurinder Chada’s Bride and Prejudice last year. But screenwriter Deborah Moggach ( Love in a Cold Climate), first- time feature director Joe Wright, Keira Knightley and Matthew Mcfadyen take the high road with this latest Pride and Prejudice. Not to be prejudiced, but this movie, of all the recent contenders, is most faithful to the spirit of Jane Austen. The novelist herself remarked to her sister how “the work is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling,” and acknowledged her own “ epigrammist” style. And that, for screenwriters, is an opportunity to indulge in one- liners. Thus, Elizabeth responding to her sister’s note that the dour Mr. Darcy “owns half of Derbyshire,” cracks, “ What? The miserable half?” The five Bennet daughters, Jane, Lizzie, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, shepherded by their meddlesome, gold- digging mother, have come to the Meryton assembly, or ball, in Hertfordshire. Here the locals are to get their first glimpse of the new owners of the nearby estate of Netherfield, the handsome and high- spirited Mr. Bingley, his icy sister Caroline and Bingley’s friend Darcy, tall, handsome and dark in every way. Brenda Blethyn is Mrs. Bennet for the ages, embarrassing to her daughters; she thinks only of settling each of them, in order of age, with a moneyed suitor. She already has Mr. Bingley typed as having plenty of money for both him and Jane, and is gratified to see how much the young aristocrat ( played by a red- haired, toothy Simon Woods), is taken by her eldest. Donald Sutherland is magnificent as Mr. Bennet, a kind and loving father and husband, keen to protect his daughters against any unsuitable pairing.
Mr. Darcy is vain and proud, but it is Lizzie’s vanity we see when she overhears his remark to Mr. Bingley, that compared with her elder sister, Miss Elizabeth “ is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” Mcfadyen is a little too pokerfaced. But his visage is softened when Elizabeth arrives at Netherfield to tend to Jane who has come down with a cold while riding over to visit, and has remained there abed at her suitor’s insistence.
Knightley embodies Elizabeth’s wit and laughter. “ I dearly love to laugh,” she tells the stone-faced Darcy, “a family trait, I think.” Then she throws back his “tolerable” remark, telling him she overheard.
Wright and Moggach have captured Austen’s characters wonderfully well. Mr. Collins, a large man in the book, is portrayed as small, like his mind, by talented British actor Tom Hollander. He is a cousin and a potential nemesis, as the Bennet estate will pass into his hands with the death of Mr. Bennet. A parson, Collins arrives for dinner with the intention of choosing a wife from among the Bennet daughters. Someone interrupts Collins’ effusive praise for his new patron, Lady Catherine de Bourg, by noting his pleasure at making flattering remarks. “ They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time,” says the pompous Collins, “ and though I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible.” The line comes straight from Austen, but it is only in the movie that Elizabeth makes her calculating reply with a scintillating smile, “ Believe me. No one would suspect it.” The plot thickens with the arrival in Hertfordshire of an army regiment. Lydia in particular is excited beyond modesty at the prospect of snagging a man in uniform, but it is Elizabeth who is taken by Mr. Wickham ( Rupert Friend), an officer who proclaims that he was ill treated by Mr. Darcy. Wickham’s father worked for Darcy’s father and the fey young man, a blue ribbon tying back his blond locks, claims Darcy was jealous over his father’s love for the young Wickham. To pride and prejudice, one might add perfidy, a quality raised to a fine point in Caroline ( Kelly Reilly), Wickham and the stately Lady de Bourg, inimitably played by Judy Dench. Wright shows many Austen- like traits in his direction, with visual symmetry and portrait- style scene settings. Such subtleties heighten the sense of order that was the ideal in the civilized Austen world. The flex of Darcy’s hand, or the device of a dance where partners are exchanged, makes poetry from crucial bits of information.
Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte tells her, “ We are all fools in love,” and in this way the truth of Austen’s novel is revealed, and one sees that Lizzie, too, is nearly undone by her pride. The gorgeous English countryside and the architecture of its stately homes do the rest. Like the classic novel itself, the movie brings a certain sadness when the end has come and there is no more to watch.