Directed by Joe Wright
Rating: * ½
Take away all the lavish costumes, and sumptuous mounting, the terrific cast and the breathtaking eye for detail, and we're still left wondering if we really need another adaptation of Jane Austen's tale of match-making, specially since Gurinder Chaddha just did a spunky job of it.
The ironic humour is not lost in the plot. There are portions of this immensely charming adaptation that would have made Jane Austen smile.
Director Joe Wright sure gets the mood of the feminine-centric Bennett family. The bustle and the giggles that accompany every eligible(and not so eligible) bachlelor's visit, topped by Brenda Blethyn's dead-on hysterics as Mrs Bennett, just leave us smiling in approval.
But beneath all the right moves, there's a vsat emptiness in this adaptation. It's more like a guy who has got it right and wants to show off , doing Jane Austen than a heart-felt rendition , or even a hilarious homage like Gurinder Chadha's Bride & Prejudice.
There's a severe shortage of layering in the plot. The scenic cinematography(Roman Osin) just skims over every coy curl and glamorous giggle to bring alive a vibrant though finally vacuous variant on 19th century England.The endless ritual of match-making orchestrated by scene after scene of merry-making dancing and boisterousness begins to appear as un-intellectual as most of these characters who are desperate to 'belong'
Director Joe Wright get a fix on Austen. But fails to take the characters anywhere where we haven't already seen them go. There are of course bouts of High Drama and Low Melodrama , each balancing the other one out with systematic celerity.
What's lacking is a sense of unpredictability in the narration, and not only because we know our Jane Austen. But also because the rhythms of narration are too rounded. And the performances, barring Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland as Mrs and Mr Bennett, too prim and propah to be anything but a caricatural representation of genteel England.
Sure, these people are funny. But they're also sincere in their satirical postures. As we see them here, they appear largely ridiculous.Keira Knighley's Elizabeth and Matthew MacFayden's Darcy are way too giggly and grim, respectfully. Martin Hendersen and Aishwarya Rai in Gurinder Chadha's film were more fun to watch.
A lot of the characters from the novel come alive in this remake wuth flustered flawlessness. They've got the tenor right. But they look like they'd like to be somewhere else. The class-- consciousness aspect of the novel is done too seriously. And the sequence where the amazing Judi Dench insults Keira is more of a squip than a squirm.
You can't wait for this novel-on-film to end...not only because you know it all but also because everyone is too busy getting it right and forgot to have fun.
