I am slightly familiar with the works of Ms Austen. I have salivated over studied the gorgeousness character development of Colin Firth Mr Darcy at some length, so the film version had a lot to live up to. But, just between me and you I think that the powers involved in the film knew that otherwise they wouldn’t have made such a pointed effort to be DIFFERENT. If Andrew Davies had this scene during the day we’ll have it at night and vice versa. And enough with the framing of every shot: looking down a corridor, through a door frame, a window, a pair of columns…ENOUGH! All that being said, it was lovely (especially with the extra eight minutes we sappy people in the Americas get) and surprisingly raw and mucky.
I prefer the BBC mini-series for obvious reasons, but this was fun. Keria Knightley was a tad too 21st century, Matthew MacFadyen was gruff enough but they made his friend Mr Bingley into even more of a transparent wet blanket that you couldn’t understand the dynamic of the friendship. In fact there was a lot of castration to supporting characters, the dastardly Wickham is played down and the scandal doesn’t feel as scandalous as it should. I adored Tom Holland as Mr Collins. Surprisingly it was not Colin Firth whom I missed through out the whole film but Benjamin Whitrow who played Mr Bennett in the mini-series.
Totally agree re Knightley and Tom Hollander.
Donald Sutherland didn’t work as Mr Bennett. Also preferred Alison Steadman’s Mrs Bingley.
Me too, I love Ms Steadman’s hyper turn as Mrs Bennet. Did you hear about Ms Knightley being tipped for an Oscar, not too sure about!
I neither had seen the mini-series, nor had read the book.
Therefore, I thought it was positively splendid. The very moment I came home, I hopped to Amazon.com and ordered the book.
And Matthew MacFadyen….. must I spend the remainder of my life pining over his performace as Mr Darcy? He’s like a cross between John Cusack and Jake Gyllenhaal – perfection! Be still, my heart.