"Pride and Prejudice" (2005)
After many trials, I finally saw Keira Knightley's version of Pride and Prejudice.
Let's start with the parts I found a bit problematic...
The Not So Good
- Mr. Bennet, one of my favorite characters for dialogue, was not... quite there. He seemed distant and uninterested in his family so much through the movie that I found his concern for Lizzy's happiness with Darcy at the end almost unconvincing.
- One or two historical nitpicks: Where were the bonnets? No respectable girl would be seen without one outside the house and Lizzy seems to have made the entire journey to Kent without one. A few of Lizzy's dresses seemed a bit too medieval, those brown and green sack things were ghastly.
- This movie was so crowded. At times I felt claustrophobic because of all the people squished onto the screen. I lost the main characters several times even when the captions (which I turned on once or twice) said that they were speaking. Better camera work could have been done there.
- One or two times I thought Lizzy's humor was too sarcastic and that's not her at all. Lizzy was intelligent and clever with words, but her wit hardly ever used the bite of cynicism.
That being said, most of these were due, I think, to the time constraints and screenwriters can be forgiven, a little, for that.
The Good
- The cinematography. Gorgeous stuff there.
- The scenery. GUH. I can't wait to go to England this summer. *bounces all around the room*
- 98% of the cast: I was pleasantly surprised by Knightley's performance and all the others. Knightley managed to convey politeness and the sparkling wit that draws readers to Austen's character again and again. Oh, and Mr. Bingley is SO a Weasley. LOL. Anyone up for a HP/P&P crossover?
- The fat trimming. The screenwriters did a pretty good job of getting the meat of the story without cutting too much.
- The dialogue. Though I adore Jane Austen's language, for someone not as enamored of her books as I am, the flowery syntax of the speech of the time can be hard to follow. I thought the screenwriters did a surprisingly good job at trimming down were necessary and explaining in dialogue what was more obvious in text.
- The soundtrack. All that lovely piano music. Ooo. Me thinks I must check this out...
Overall opinion? A good movie. One that I might consider buying. I'd give it a B+ I think. Maybe an A-. It's much better than the Laurence Olivier version anyway and not everyone is up for the 5-hour mini-series.
Let's start with the parts I found a bit problematic...
The Not So Good
- Mr. Bennet, one of my favorite characters for dialogue, was not... quite there. He seemed distant and uninterested in his family so much through the movie that I found his concern for Lizzy's happiness with Darcy at the end almost unconvincing.
- One or two historical nitpicks: Where were the bonnets? No respectable girl would be seen without one outside the house and Lizzy seems to have made the entire journey to Kent without one. A few of Lizzy's dresses seemed a bit too medieval, those brown and green sack things were ghastly.
- This movie was so crowded. At times I felt claustrophobic because of all the people squished onto the screen. I lost the main characters several times even when the captions (which I turned on once or twice) said that they were speaking. Better camera work could have been done there.
- One or two times I thought Lizzy's humor was too sarcastic and that's not her at all. Lizzy was intelligent and clever with words, but her wit hardly ever used the bite of cynicism.
That being said, most of these were due, I think, to the time constraints and screenwriters can be forgiven, a little, for that.
The Good
- The cinematography. Gorgeous stuff there.
- The scenery. GUH. I can't wait to go to England this summer. *bounces all around the room*
- 98% of the cast: I was pleasantly surprised by Knightley's performance and all the others. Knightley managed to convey politeness and the sparkling wit that draws readers to Austen's character again and again. Oh, and Mr. Bingley is SO a Weasley. LOL. Anyone up for a HP/P&P crossover?
- The fat trimming. The screenwriters did a pretty good job of getting the meat of the story without cutting too much.
- The dialogue. Though I adore Jane Austen's language, for someone not as enamored of her books as I am, the flowery syntax of the speech of the time can be hard to follow. I thought the screenwriters did a surprisingly good job at trimming down were necessary and explaining in dialogue what was more obvious in text.
- The soundtrack. All that lovely piano music. Ooo. Me thinks I must check this out...
Overall opinion? A good movie. One that I might consider buying. I'd give it a B+ I think. Maybe an A-. It's much better than the Laurence Olivier version anyway and not everyone is up for the 5-hour mini-series.