Pride and Prejudice

I'm always a sucker for Jane Austen, and I've been a Keira Knightly fan since Bend it like Beckham, but I didn't get around to seeing the new Pride and Prejudice until last night. It seemed to vanish from the theatres in a flash, and perhaps that's just as well, since after ten minutes of frustrating failure to understand the dialog, I resorted to starting over with subtitles. That worked out well, especially since having the wide-screen version on my narrow-screen TV left plenty of blank space to put them on.

Casting the utterly gorgeous Ms. Knightly as the "plain" Miss Bennett seems a bit odd, especially when the dialog calls her just that, but in fact it works out pretty well. Mr. Darcy must fall in love with her for her wit, mind, and character, but the camera has its own reasons, and they look equally convincing. Since Mr. Darcy spends an inordinate portion of the movie in mostly silent brooding, Elizabeth Bennett must carry the movie, and indeed she does, and very well too, with a major assist from fabulous scenery.

I call it an impressive performance by a new director and a talented young actress.

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