Pride and Prejudice (2005 movie)
Dec. 1st, 2005 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienThe short version: I enjoyed it, but thought it fell apart rather in the closing half-hour or so.
I went into this with a pretty good idea of what to expect, so I wasn't shocked by anything. (It may have helped that it's been a while since I read the book.) It wasn't exactly Austen, but it was pretty and warm and fun. There were moments -- usually the ones involving oversized tree roots, or the younger girls romping around being annoying -- when I was reminded of Peter Jackson's LOTR movies, but that might have a lot to do with my rather limited experience with seeing movies on the big screen. (Also, the actor playing Wickham bears a certain resemblance to Orlando Bloom.) The English scenery was lovely. The Derbyshire bits were rather familiar to me, particularly Chatsworth/Pemberley and the Stanage Edge scene (which was visually gorgeous, if pointless and not too plausible); I must admit that I was a little distracted in the Pemberley scenes by spotting familiar details, and got a small thrill when Lizzie ran down the steps onto the terrace, which is not one of the bits open to tourists. The rain didn't feel right; it was too hard and much too conveniently timed.
There were one or two jarring bits of dialog, as when Jane declares she's 'completely over' Bingley, or Charlotte's 'Don't you dare judge me!' On the whole, though, the dialog worked for me, and I found the Bennetts believable and engaging as a family. Bingley's almost clownish vacuousness was a bit tiresome, and I'm afraid my heart didn't even flutter over Mr. Darcy, who seemed stiff and dull to the end.
And then there was that last half-hour, or maybe it was only fifteen minutes and just felt like half an hour, with midnight visits and people wandering around the countryside half-dressed and much soppiness. I suppose, for a modern movie, the rather dry Austen ending wouldn't work, but I would have thought there could have been some kind of happy medium between that and what we actually got.
I'm glad I saw it, and I might even get the DVD when it comes out.
I went into this with a pretty good idea of what to expect, so I wasn't shocked by anything. (It may have helped that it's been a while since I read the book.) It wasn't exactly Austen, but it was pretty and warm and fun. There were moments -- usually the ones involving oversized tree roots, or the younger girls romping around being annoying -- when I was reminded of Peter Jackson's LOTR movies, but that might have a lot to do with my rather limited experience with seeing movies on the big screen. (Also, the actor playing Wickham bears a certain resemblance to Orlando Bloom.) The English scenery was lovely. The Derbyshire bits were rather familiar to me, particularly Chatsworth/Pemberley and the Stanage Edge scene (which was visually gorgeous, if pointless and not too plausible); I must admit that I was a little distracted in the Pemberley scenes by spotting familiar details, and got a small thrill when Lizzie ran down the steps onto the terrace, which is not one of the bits open to tourists. The rain didn't feel right; it was too hard and much too conveniently timed.
There were one or two jarring bits of dialog, as when Jane declares she's 'completely over' Bingley, or Charlotte's 'Don't you dare judge me!' On the whole, though, the dialog worked for me, and I found the Bennetts believable and engaging as a family. Bingley's almost clownish vacuousness was a bit tiresome, and I'm afraid my heart didn't even flutter over Mr. Darcy, who seemed stiff and dull to the end.
And then there was that last half-hour, or maybe it was only fifteen minutes and just felt like half an hour, with midnight visits and people wandering around the countryside half-dressed and much soppiness. I suppose, for a modern movie, the rather dry Austen ending wouldn't work, but I would have thought there could have been some kind of happy medium between that and what we actually got.
I'm glad I saw it, and I might even get the DVD when it comes out.