David and Katherine Goodwin

I've just watched (the advantages of being ill :-/) the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. Being fully prepared to absolutely hate it, I've been - in parts - pleasantly surprised.

The first part of the film gives a feeling of being very rushed. The story, which in the book builds slowly and at an even pace, felt a little muddled (and believe me, I know the story intimately) and hurried. Even the dialogue felt like it was rushed out in places. I understand that a lot of the feeling of pace comes from small but significant events happening in seemingly mundance circumstances - and this must make it difficult to cut events out entirely to focus on the "main" ones.

The second half was clearly easier to cut, as they got rid of a lot of back story with the Lydia and cut down the Derbyshire story quite significantly. It got rid of some of the character of the story, but allowed the major Lizzie/Darcy scenes more focus.

There were annoyances with the characters, mostly unfavourable comparisons with the excellent casting and acting in the BBC series, and due to the lack of time to really show the depth of the characters. Mr Collins was a bit of a cardboard cutout character, Mr and Mrs Bennet were both just lacking something and Mary was practically invisible.

I didn't like Keira Knightly as Lizzie, but Darcy was good in places. The dialogue was, in places, Jane Austen for Chavs (or Americans?)- certainly lacking some of Austen's original wit.

All in all, I would describe it as "Austen Lite" (American spelling deliberate). Fairly fun, and not a bad introduction to Jane Austen if you don't have the patience for 5 hours of quality BBC goodness.

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