Review of Pride & Prejudice (2005) by Bryce F — 24 Mar 2013

The novel Pride and Prejudice is a humorous satire about women's dependence on marriage for economic security. In the 2005 movie rendition of it, Joe Wright, a relatively new director, attempted to capture the feeling of it in a condensed two-hour film. Though it is considered by many to be the best version of the movie, it ultimately fails to capture the novel's satirical message about women marrying for financial safety and plays out more like a romantic drama with a corny ending due to its underdeveloped or differently developed characters and lack or change of a few important scenes.

The movie Pride and Prejudice had several scenes omitted or changed to make it fit into the two-hour average movie runtime. The whole rendition of the movie is a cliché. In shortening the time to tell the entire story, Joe Wright turned a satire about the women's views on marriage into just another love story. Evidence of this can be seen as early as the first ball. In the movie, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy make eye contact for a moment and it is evident by her facial expression that she is going to end up with him at the end. This is a cliché seen in most romance movies. Also, in the scenes where Mr. Darcy professes his love to Elizabeth, it rains as she turns him down and says he's the last man she would ever marry. They are not outside in the rain when this happens in the novel. This makes the entire scene seem more dreary and sad where the novel is humorous and satirical. The ending to this movie is a romantic cliché also. Elizabeth and Darcy are outside after they get married and are about to kiss when a conversation happens in which Mr. Darcy professes that he is completely happy with her in heart-warming way. Give me a break. The ending is so corny in the movie that it kills the entire satirical point of the novel. All these clichés turn the movie into a heart-wrenching love story rather than a humorous satire.

A few of the characters in the movie are developed differently than the characters in the novel. One of these characters is Elizabeth. She is kind and has a good humor in the novel, whereas in the movie she is rude and ill-tempered. Darcy is also seen as a comic character in the movie, which he was most certainly not in the novel. And speaking of characterization, it was virtually nonexistent for Wickham in the movie. Whoever wrote the scripts for these characters and was in charge of their characterization failed to capture them in the way Austen did in the novel. This makes the entire movie feel like a romantic drama. It does not have the feel of the satire that was created by Jane Austen in the novel.

Though Joe Wright successfully recreates the events of the novel Pride and Prejudice in his movie, he fails to capture the feeling of it. The movie has underdeveloped or differently characterized characters and condensed scenes with some actually omitted. With this, Wright creates a romantic drama instead of the humorous satire created by Austen in the novel.