Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

I was profoundly disappointed by this. The story itself is a rather nice story that's grown on me over the years, but this version felt sort of like... Pride and Prejudice For Dummies, although that sounds horribly offensive to anyone who liked it. Heh. I felt everyone was very two-dimensional. This wouldn't have bothered me for characters like Lydia or even Jane, who really aren't supposed to have a whole lot to them. But Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are fairly complex characters, and here they were transformed into bland replicas of every feisty girl and strong-and-silent guy in romance movies. Bleh. That rather destroyed it for me.

I'm also disturbed by movies that were supposed to be set in olden times but have pop culture references (see my hatred for Ella Enchanted and Around the World in 80 Days). This didn't do that, but it detracted from the actual story by simply setting modern characters with modern thinking in Victorian dresses. Example: Charlotte's line "Don't you judge me, Lizzie, don't you dare judge me!" That can't have appeared anywhere near the original novel. And for me it zapped me right out of the story into real life where I was thinking, "Gee, that felt out of place." 1.5 stars.

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