Ok, so I went to see Pride and Prejudice not actually expecting that much, except 2 hours of Keira Knightly...I guess you could say I was PREJUDICED..hahahahahahahahahah...ok forget I said that.
The movie exceeded my expectations, the casting is excellent, Keira is very very good as Lizzy, Matthew MacFadyen pretty much does a Colin Firth impression albeit a very good one. I was also pleasantly surprised to see American actors Jena Malone and Donald Sutherland as Lydia Bennett and Mr. Bennett. Dame Judi Dench does her typical rendition of a heartless aristocrat as Lady Catherine de Bourg.
Visually the movie is beautiful, lots of sweeping shots of the English countryside (made me miss home!) and some really innovative camerawork. The dialogue threw me a bit sometimes, they appeared to have tried to stay true to the novel while updating the dialogue slightly for a contemporary audience, like when Lizzy says "oh I love this dance" at the ball it just seemed so out of place.
The story is excellent although we really have to credit Ms. Austin with that one, whoever adapted the novel for this version did a great job though. THE ONE THING THAT STOPPED ME FROM LOVING THIS MOVIE WAS THE ENDING. I had actually read that Working Title added a different ending for the US version..it certainly shows. The ending looks as if it was just slepped on at the last minute, the tone is totally different to the rest of the film and actually made several people in the cinema laugh out loud. I won't spoil it but lets just say it was definitely an ending to wrap it all up nicely a la Hollywood, which is why I don't understand why they didn't leave the original double wedding ending in?
I wouldn't have been surprised if after that they had decided to add a car chase, or aliens, or Oprah...just to draw in more audiences.
All things considered Pride and Prejudice is a solid and surprisingly funny holiday movie, just dont expect too much from the ending.
7/10
