SA Reviews: Pride and Prejudice
October 14, 2020
I enjoy sitting through a symphony. Aesthetic is more important to me than most things in a culinary experience. My wedding – everything from the catering to the playlist – is planned out in my head (pending future wife approval). My fascinations usually align with things that most would consider to be female-dominated interests, and I am perfectly okay with that as I find that getting a good mix of typically stereotypical male practices and stereotypical female practices gives me a variety of perspective and appreciation.
Where I often draw the line in my endeavors into things that are considered more feminine is the practice of watching overly romantic, “lovey dovey” movies. As a man who is writing a book on Christian dating culture and frequents listening to Ray LaMontagne, it is not as if I am not the romantic type, but dipping my toes into the waters of romantic films has been one practice I have never been able to bring myself to.
That is, of course, until I stumbled upon the 2005 Joe Wright directed remake of the classic movie and book “Pride and Prejudice”, which was originally penned by Jane Austen. Perhaps it was my childhood crush on Keira Knightley from her days in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise that sucked me in, but what I stayed for was the compelling dialogue, interesting character dynamic, and very original storyline.
Most of the film’s actors were familiar faces to me, whether it be Donald Sutherland who I had seen as President Snow in the Hunger Games or Judi Dench as M in Golden Eye. What baffled me was the broad portfolio of parts these actors could play. Sutherland went from being the cruel political leader of the Districts to being a loveable father in a house full of girls in Pride & Prejudice, while Dench went from being the snide commanding officer of James Bond to being a prissy debutant who aims to control her family and their love lives. The most moving performances belonged to the main characters played by Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightley, who seems a little too good at the role, as if she really was a late 18thcentury rural England resident who stumbled upon a time machine and came to the 2000’s.
The dynamic of Knightley’s Lizzy and Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy highlights the prejudice associated with family pedigree, the grapevine effect on reputation, and the complexity of communicating affection through social awkwardness. Jane Austen deserves every bit of legendary props for the way these characters display the nuances of late 18thcentury England and social status, as well as the faults and often unseen good side of all persons. What you see is very often not what you are truly getting, which Darcy eventually shows and Lizzy comes to realize.
With an elegant conglomerate of period piece architecture and dancing, conversational and observational humor as well as memorable side glances and turns of phrase, the film will leave you pondering the timeliness and epic nature of romance as you sleep that night. On a personal note, I found myself appreciating new features of the movie as the night went on, and I remembered subtle details that make the story that much more “amiable”.
At an attempt to stay true to the original text, screenwriter Deborah Moggach used late 18thcentury English phrasing and dialect, which can be hard to keep up with, so subtitles are highly recommended. This is a benefit to the viewer because you do not want to miss a word of the compelling and fast paced dialogue. Rarely does watching a movie based off of a book make me want to drive to my local library to pick up a copy, but Pride & Prejudice has compelled me to head to the bookshelves. Or perhaps I’ll take a horse carriage, in an effort to get that much more in tune with the story itself.
Written by: Landen Swain
Landen believes the human experience longs to be expressed; through our art, our labor, our songs, our storytelling. As a published playwright, author, and poet, he enjoys expressing his little chapter of the human experience through his writings and is thankful that the SA blog allows him to do that. He is published in numerous magazines, literary journals, and has several plays published by Off the Wall Plays, an online play publishing house.