Review of Pride & Prejudice (2005) by Cameron J — 08 Aug 2011

Man, Joe Wright would make a great gay guy. Heck, if he keeps making movies like this, I don't care if he's the spawn of Orson Welles and Jude Law. Well, looking at him, that might be the most likely case. But seriously though, he really gets the time and tone down. It's like watching a classic romantic piece like "Gone With the Wind", only with modern filmmaking sensibilities, acting that has aged well and a non cop-out second half. Man, what a dull, tossed-together offense to a brilliant first ha-oh, wait, we're done talking about "Gone With the Wind". Still, as much as I've praised the film, it's still not terribly great, suffering from such flaws as a lack of development, slow spots, a slow pacing, a mild cop-out ending and some general underwhelmingness or at least for the first half.

Really, there's not much to the film. It's simply an entertaining art project, but looking at it that way, it's finely-crafted, featuring very good performances, excellent production value, lovely cinematography and a progressive increase in compellingness. Of course, what needs to be touched upon the most is the film's style. The film is a major throwback to classic period piece filmmaking, reviving a form of charm, snappiness and authenticity that was lost in translation as the film industry grew. However, the film still boasts much contemporary filmmaking styles to make the film finer and more charming, but not to where it drowns out its classic theme. It will evoke memories of classic cinema, but still dazzle with modern filmmaking sensibilities. Man, this whole review feels almost as forced as this paragraph closer, so I better wrap this up.

In the end, Joe Wright's adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" is not a terribly impacting piece of cinema, but with excellent performances, a handsome look and a form of charm and authenticity that will evoke classic period films, it stands as an ultimately quite enjoyable piece of pure art.