Jane Addiction
Superb cast and lively production revives durable Austen classic

Shot in and around some of England's stateliest homes, this latest remake of Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen's most durable novel, is one of the most seductively beauteous Austen films ever. Mists drift across vast green valleys, wind-whipped caped figures perch on stark rocky cliffs, and sunsets and sunrises bathe everything in shimmering apricot light. But is this alone reason enough for yet another remake?

Maybe not, but the exceptionally well-chosen cast in Joe Wright's feature directing debut certainly is, along with the fluid pace and emotional urgency of his classy production. Tall, rangy Keira Knightley may not br built for Empire gowns, but she is otherwise perfect as Lizzie Bennet, the sensible second sister in a family of five daughters, who observes the human foibles around her with sparkling wit and an irresistible laugh that crinkles up her entire face. She has a wonderful rapport with Donald Sutherland as her beleaguered Papa, a country squire attempting to keep his sanity amid the schemes of his flighty wife (the great Brenda Blethyn) to marry off their girls to suitably well-off gentlemen.

Simon Woods (his red hair standing straight up like TV chef Jame Oliver's) is guilelessly charming as male ingenue Bingley, whose romance with eldest Bennet daughter, Jane (lovely Rosamund Pike) is aborted—so Lizzie thinks—by the pride of his stormy friend, Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen). Any adaptation of this story succeeds or fails on the quality of its Darcy, and MacFadyen's rough-cut gem of a Darcy makes this production a winner. Although not as classically handsome as, say, Laurence Olivier in the vintage MGM movie, MacFadyen suggests the inner turmoil of a serious young man with no gift for idle chitchat adrift in a milieu of chattering socially butterflies, struggling to find a way to connect with someone on deeper level.

The deft script by Deborah Moggach (with a rumored assist from an uncredited Emma Thompson) weaves in most of Austen's busy plot while allowing plenty of room and leisure for all the missed connections, wrongheaded suppositions, and wistful repentances that finally bring Lizzie and Darcy together, stripped of pretensions, for a kiss delayed until the very last frame. Austen's world of corsets, curl papes, and giggling females is conveyed with gusto, and Wright keeps things moving in clever ways: Lizzie and Darcy dance for the first time at a lively country ball, and the other dancers gradually disappear from the screen as the couple sizes each other up. Bravo all around.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE With Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Donal Sutherland, and Brenda Blethyn. Written by Deborah Moggach. Directed by Joe Wright. A Focus Features release. Rated PG. 128 minutes. (***1/2)

Review published in Good Times, November 17, 2005