Charlotte Bronte famously criticized Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for its ‘neat borders and delicate flowers.’ The novel, she wrote, had ‘no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck’ – merely ‘elegant but confined houses.’ Fair or not, she could have had no such complaints at Joe Wright’s outdoor extravaganza of the elements that is Pride and Prejudice 2005. The film is shot so beautifully, with such sweeping grandeur that at times its easy to forget that it’s sourced from a Jane Austen novel. Google searches for ‘Pride and Prejudice cliff’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice rain’ have emerged in great numbers since this adaptation. This is of course testament to the fact that the movie’s romantic additions have become lodged in the minds of many new fans, much like Colin Firth’s dip in the lake.

The Script

Despite the intervention of the cliffs, the rain and the elements, there is a genuine attempt to keep the storyline close to that of the novel. Adapting the book into a feature film, the task of screenwriter and novelist Deborah Moggach, must be hugely challenging. Pride and Prejudice is such a concise and complete novel that, as Virginia Woolf said, ‘you cannot break off a scene or even a sentence without bleeding it of some of its life.’ Moggach does a commendable job, however; the first twenty minutes rush through the story at break-neck speed, the Hursts are cut and Mr. Wickham’s role is cut down to an absolute minimum – but all these choices seem defensible.

The dialog is generally excellent, although less faithful to the original than the 1980 and 1995 BBC series. There are a few clumsy moments, such as when Charlotte says to Elizabeth ‘Don’t judge me, Lizzy. Don’t you dare judge me!’ in a manner more suited to a rerun of the Ricki Lake show than the Regency era. However, there are thankfully only a few of these moments and they shouldn’t detract from your enjoyment of the movie. Other passages, such as Darcy’s proposal in the now famous rain scene, are written and delivered beautifully.

The Direction

The movie is undoubtedly the handsomest adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, or indeed any Jane Austen novel. Joe Wright comes from a social realist tradition, and focuses on the little details that bring the Regency period to life. He said: ‘I wanted to treat it as a piece of British realism rather than going with the picturesque tradition, which tends to depict an idealized version of English heritage as some kind of heaven on earth… I think that the detail is in the small things, like crumbs on a table or flowers in a vase.’

The Cast

The lead roles of Elizabeth and Darcy are played by Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. In 2005 both of these actors were close to the ages intended for them by Jane Austen, and they have obvious chemistry together. Knightley’s Elizabeth is bright, feisty and inquisitive, while Macfadyen plays Darcy with an obvious vulnerability from the start. This makes his character transformation, which of course has to take place within a two hour film – rather than the course of a novel or television series – much easier to believe.

Donald Sutherland is a rather frail, downbeat, yet sentimental Mr. Bennet. This makes for some touching scenes, particularly at the end of the movie. Brenda Blethyn’s Mrs. Bennet is excellent, only slightly less shrill than Alison Steadman’s but played along very similar lines. The highlight of the cast for me is Tom Hollander as Mr. Collins. He is so perfectly inept socially, so nervy yet so contrived in his manners. It’s also nice to see a Mr. Collins of roughly the right age, although Hollander is certainly not the ‘a tall, heavy-set man’ that Jane Austen envisaged. Nevertheless, he injects so much humor into the role and embodies the absurdity of the character so fully that such pedantry is unwarranted.

Pride and Prejudice 2005 is an admirably ambitious reworking of Jane Austen’s classic story. Its successes are many and, faced with the task of adapting such a labyrinthine work, Deborah Moggach and Joe Wright can only be commended for their efforts. Blessed with a fine cast and visionary direction, it is certainly a must-see for fans of the book. Those who haven’t read the novel, which included Wright himself before he agreed to make the film, should also enjoy its sumptuous cinematography and sweeping score – not to mention the delightful performances from Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. It’s such a romantic and rustic adaptation that even Charlotte Bronte would have approved!

Your warm and fuzzy friend,
Lizzy