Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Synopsis: This movie brings us into the lives of the Bennet family, a modest lower class family with five daughters in the Georgian England (late 1700s). The story follows the second eldest, Elizabeth (Keira Knightly), as she explores the pressures put on a young girl with the coming of age. The story begins when a new upper class citizen, Mr. Bingely arrives in town, followed by his close companion, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). Mr. Bingely immediately falls in love with Elizabeth's older sister, Jane. The movie then goes on to explore the complications of the marrying process especially when it comes to the upper class marrying down. As the title would suggest, this movie is all about how people's pride, rich and the poor, can influence other's lives and make the most natural thing, as two people in love, into a situation that is more unnatural and awkward. Elizabeth dispises people whom are overly proud and it leads to her disliking Mr. Darcy. But through his dislike and hate, she discovers more about him and in the process, more about herself, society, and the subtle way that everyone is proud including herself, and how everyone knows prejudice towards someone else.

Should You Watch It? Do you like drama, soap operas, melodramatic scenes, long speeches in weird english, and girls giggling? Then this movie is for you. This movie does well in bringing to life the daily life and pressures of young girls. Not only does it do a good job in re creating the authenticity of the Georgian Era through lush natural setting as well as era specific furnishings and etiquette. The story in itself is worth watching as the characters and their naunces are nicely interwoven into one another creating situations and drama which are dealt nicely by the director, Joe Wright. Of course the story is much more vivid in the novel it was based on by Jane Austen, but the screenplay does well in translating it to screen. The characters are very much alive and although Keira Knightly's performance is not Oscar level, she still does a good job in portraying someone she is definitly not.

Things to Watch Out For: The title of the movie should be playing through your mind as you watch this movie. This movie contains a lot of dialogue and it's the heart of the film. The characters are each proud in their own little way and each hold prejudice towards someone and these issues are all hashed out during the movie. The movie continues to try to educate the audience on how pride and prejudice was prominant in those times and how it made everything that the more difficult. But if you don't care about that kinda stuff then just watch ballroom scenes which were very rich and well done.

Things You Don't Expect: The music is very good. It's all classical all the time but it's perfectly placed throughout to add a nice touch to the authenticity of the movie as well as adding a boost during the drama. Also, this is the first movie where Keira Knightly's breasts are not electronically enchanced and she's better without it.

Final Score: 7.5