Being a snob is not something that sits well with me…not when I’m the supposed snob. But more and more I’m realizing recently that I can be, well, very finicky about some very trivial things. I don’t like to see/watch performances unless it’s of what I deem to be a sufficiently high calibre. Figure-skating…dance… and last night, the latest film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.
As I had mentioned to Huimei beforehand, I knew I was rather ‘proud and prejudiced’ regarding Pride & Prejudice…because hey, it’s P&P! That’s like the most beloved of Austen’s works… Lizzy Bennet & Mr. Darcy were painted so wonderfully in the book that it’s quite a task to match up to readers’ expectations. Turns out, the film was rather enjoyable, with a generous spattering of funny moments. But I was still decidedly underwhelmed by it… too many aspects of the film rang false of my interpretation of Austen’s world. (In early 19th century England, would people wander out in the early morning for miles with nothing much more than their bedclothes and some tawdry overcoat because they couldn’t sleep?!) I know, I’m picky…*sigh*. But when I go to the movies, I expect to be drawn into another world and not be thinking “ok now that would never happen in that world…”
Acting…ah, another area to whine about. Not that Keira Knightley didn’t do a good job of acting…but she’s just not Lizzy Bennet. There’s something too contemporary about her interpretation…Lizzy in the novel was spirited, intelligent, but always decorous and sensitive. There were moments in which I felt Knightley’s Lizzy bordered on being too unrestrained. Jennifer Ehle’s Lizzy in the 1995 A&E television series had a delightful way of having a perfectly composed and polite face and manner while her eyes sparkled with wit and mischief. And of course, Mr. Darcy… I have to confess, like most Austen fans, I used to doubt that any actor could do Mr. Darcy justice. Laurence Olivier was rather impressive in the 1940 film as Mr. Darcy, but Colin Firth blew me away. His Darcy had an air of untouchableness… impeccable aristrocratic manners and pride that precisely fitted the Darcy of Austen’s novel. The contrast between the burning passion he felt for Lizzy and the cool demeanour he maintains was wonderfully manifest in Firth’s nuanced interpretation of Darcy. I felt MacFadyen wasn’t stiff/proud enough on first impression, and his passion didn’t come across as hot as Firth’s carefully banked, yet raging fire.
If there is one performance that I took note of, it was Rosamund Pike’s Jane. Now, she was closer to the Jane I had in mind from the novel than the Jane in the tv series. Cool, calm, serene and never one to wear her heart on her sleeve. (Jane’s always reminded me rather, of my friend Beatrice!) Her one scene at the end at accepting Bingley’s proposal (“Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”) was, I felt, beautifully done. Donald Sutherland was quite adequate as Mr. Bennet, although I have a feeling that Jim Broadbent may have done a brighter job of it. One of the disappointments in this film was the Lizzy – Mr. Bennet relationship. It is so underdeveloped that at the end when Mr. Bennet says to her “I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy,” one can’t help feeling that the touching attachment seemed to have come out from nowhere. (Lizzy is supposed to be his favourite daughter and the one he has the highest esteem for.)
Thus far, I haven’t preferred any film adaptation of an Austen novel over a tv miniseries since it usually takes many more hours to do justice to Austen’s novels…all except one. Ang Lee’s Sense & Sensibility (1995). Now that, was a masterpiece for me. Little wonder Emma Thompson won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay that year (it took her 4 yrs to write it!), or that the film won for Best Dramatic Film at the Golden Globe Awards. The feel of that film was 100% Austen. The acting was, also, quite uniformly impressive. I suppose for me, I prefer interpretations of classical works to be, well, classical! (I hated Bahz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet…though I would make an exception for Kenneth Branagh’s modern interpretation of Hamlet because everything else was spot on. Then again, Kenneth Branagh practically never makes a false step when it’s Shakespeare at stake.)
Hope I haven’t dampened anybody’s enthusiasm for watching the film… :P But for those of my friends who know my movie rating system… this adaptation falls quite far short of what I consider a ‘must-see’, particularly at the cinema…you can wait till the DVD comes out!
James Berardinelli’s reviews for:
Sense & Sensibility (1995)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Hamlet (1996) (This is in his all-time Top 100 films)
Aside: I tend to share Mr. Berardinelli’s sentiments regarding most of his film reviews. But I smart a little at him giving both S&S and P&P 3.5 star ratings. All I can say is… he probably isn’t an Austen fan *sniff*.
Journey of the Heart 