Pride & Prejudice

Gorgeous. With the very first shot and the first notes of the piano, I was captured and only released with the closing credits, emotionally enriched. It's hard to see a film so well directed, so easily narrated and so wonderfully acted. Artistically, too, it is flawless – thoughtful composition of images, imaginative cinematography, elaborate sets and costumes, here the Oscar nominations are very appropriate. Same with Keira Knightley, she doesn't really appeal to me as a woman (see Tetsuo's comment), but here she was divine, in both her acting and expression. And I can hardly imagine a better Mr Darcy than Matthew Macfadyen's either. In short: for the first time in a long time, a film that struck a chord with me. PS: I'm getting really interested in Jane Austen adaptations, I'm going to look for Lee's Sense and Sensibility. (2022-08-27)

Formally it’s absolutely great, but, unfortunately, in every other shot or dialogue I felt like I've seen exactly this countless times before and executed better. Pride and Prejudice did not offend me in any way, it has unusually sharp and witty dialogues for the period it is set in. Similarly, I liked Keira Knightley’s frankness and honesty. However, as a story about love and relationships, this piece didn’t resonate with me deeply, which is quite a mystery considering my taste and feelings. Perhaps it is too artificial – that's how I would characterize the whole thing in one short and telling sentence. There is emotion, yes, but everything somehow drags on, it creeps... concealment, true love, artificial love, the customs of the aristocracy... I've seen it all elsewhere... nothing new under the sun. (2006-10-15)

I still can’t believe I loved this movie so much. A sprawling and unimaginative plot stretched out over two hours, peppered with Keira Knightley's sweet smile, romantic sets and a perfect happy ending... am I really supposed to like that? Well yes. Perhaps I forgot to mention what a huge charm that sweet smile has, how apt and captivating the romantic and history-laden production design is, how skilled a director Joe Wright is and that the story under his baton is brimming with weddings, engagements and carefully spaced out emotions so unobtrusively, and of course, you just can't resist. It's a pity that the director sometimes visibly skipped ahead a few pages and tried to shorten and simplify the very rich plot of the book, and it took me a while to sort out everything in my head. Otherwise, however, a refined and brilliantly executed spectacle with all the trimmings... (2012-07-16)

The folly of the powerful in a British form from the pen of Jane Austen couldn’t have been better. Her world is very far from what I imagine as an ideal bedtime story. Reading her books would be make me totally desperate. The movie is a different case, however. Joe Wright honors the source material and so there is a number of higher-class conceited characters that you would like to shoot with a cannon from a Soviet T-100 tank. But the film is lucky because the dialogues are brilliantly written so there is always somebody to shut them up with a polite, cynical word. That and the very pretty shots prove that it would be a shame to overlook this film. (2018-09-21)

The deep and stunning eyes of Miss Keira took me to a place where no road is long enough or too muddy, and where no game is good enough not to have a better one. When, in addition, the enchanting music reaches its strongest twist, you want to be Mr. Darcy, who gets a chance to show himself in the right light, or be Elizabeth and suggest the truth to everyone with her straightforwardness. But what fascinates me the most is that even though Jane Austen's original is charming in its verbosity and lushness, director Wright managed to reduce it so excellently that it clearly surpasses it. (2006-02-19)