Pride & Prejudice (2005)

France, United Kingdom, United States of America

Drama, Romance

Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Working Title Films, Scion Films, Working Title Films

Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander, Rosamund Pike

Joe Wright

Deborah Moggach

Taglines: A romance ahead of its time.

based on novel or book, england, bachelor, family relationships, suitor, prejudice, period drama, pride, 18th century, opposites attract, gentleman, georgian or regency era, 1790s, sisters

A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.

Reviews:

Author: FilipeManuelNeto
**Overall, it's a good adaptation, even if it's not free of mistakes and problems.** I believe that “Pride and Prejudice” is one of the most transported English novels to film and television. I've seen more than one adaptation, and each one has its merits and problems (however, it's generally agreed that the 1995 miniseries is the most perfect and canonical). This film is not as good as I would like it to be, it has several problems, but it is quite acceptable and also has positive notes to retain. Here, the story we already know so well takes place in the final years of the 18th century. From what I saw, the director wanted to do this to avoid the fashion of the Regency period, which he doesn't like, and taking advantage of the fact that Austen wrote the early version of the book around this time. Well, I can say that I share the thoughts of the director, Joe Wright, when it comes to dresses from the Regency/First French Empire period. Aesthetically, they are much less interesting than the “bridal cakes” of the pre-French Revolution period, or the wide dresses that began to be worn in the Romantic period. The idea of these dresses, which greatly emphasize the woman's chest and then fall straight down like a nightgown, is in a way imitating what the Romans and Greeks were thought to wear. Even so, there are several errors in the way the characters were dressed, arranged, combed and characterized: basically, the director ignored everything that didn't suit him. That was a mistake. The film is reasonably short for the literary work it brings, but I think it couldn't be otherwise. For the rest, the narrative is decently done, and the adaptation made to the source material is quite conscientious and tries not to cut important things. What I didn't like was the way certain characters were developed: Elizabeth became a wild girl and much less contained than would be supposed in the novel, for example. The rest, however, is quite satisfactory. The film is full of great British actors: in addition to Keira Knightley, who manages well in the role of protagonist, we also have Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn, Talulah Riley, Jena Malone and Judy Dench. Each did a fairly good job in the role assigned to them. We should also appreciate the work of Matthew MacFadyen, Donald Sutherland, Simon Woods and Tom Hollander. On a technical level, the film invests a lot in good sets, convincing and well-selected shooting locations and good props. The cinematography is also good and does an excellent job throughout the film, with enviable camera work and good colors and lighting. The film also has a good soundtrack.