Starring: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Simon Woods, Rupert Friend, Tom Hollander and Judi Dench
Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) lives in the early 19th century England with her parents and 4 sisters. She gets along fine with the pretty and serene Jane (Rosamund Pike) and is amused by her 3 other sisters (Jena Malone, Carey Mulligan and Talulah Riley). She adores her father (Donald Sutherland) and tries to tolerate her mother (Brenda Blethyn )- who is very loud, very traditional and is dying to see all her daughters get married fast. Except Lizzy couldn’t have cared less. She loves reading, walking, dancing and having fun. She is not about to give up the idea on true love so that her mother can be happy.
When Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods), his sister and their friend Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) visit home, things are about to get a little complicated. Bingley and Jane instantly fall for each other. Elizabeth is not impressed by Darcy at all, who appears to be very full of himself. And no matter how rich, handsome and knowledgeable Darcy might be, Elizabeth won’t take any crap from anyone. But given Bingley’s love and her mother’s plans, she might have to see a lot more of Darcy than she planned. Then she meets the handsome soldier Wickham (Rupert Friend) who tells her that Darcy caused him great misfortune. But maybe Darcy isn’t that arrogant and proud. Maybe he is just misunderstood. It is not helping matters that he has declared his feelings for her…
Obviously there is a lot to the story than just the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth but it is the core that gives the story the name and the magic. There are many sub-plots featuring Elizabeth’s sister and the one featuring her best friend but let’s face it. Our number 2 concern is Jane and Bingley. And number 1 is obviously….yeah.
This version of Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is either in top 20 or top 10 and yeah, I watch a lot of movies. It has all the charming and addictive elements of an amazing period romance and it contains hilarious comic relief. The actors are perfectly cast and I wouldn’t replace anyone, had I been (magically) involved in the process. Matthew McFadyen and Keira Knightley were born to play Darcy and Elizabeth.
I love everything about this movie. The costumes, music, parties, location, houses…See it. Hell, it is 7.8 on imdb. How many other “chick flicks” that are rated that high? 10/10 from me.
Darcy is the guy that should give every boy in his right mind a nightmare. Why? You can read it here.
