AGM Coordinators Marsha Huff and Sara Bowen were recently treated to a private screening of the film. They report that Matthew Macfadyen is as handsome a Mr. Darcy as could be wished, and Keira Knightley is lovely and endearing as Elizabeth Bennet. Keira and Matthew have an extraordinary chemistry, and their youth is perfectly in keeping with the descriptions of Elizabeth and Darcy in the novel. 

Brenda Blethyn is an attractive and fully developed Mrs. Bennet. Most depictions ignore the novel’s statement that Mr. Bennet was captivated in their younger days by her beauty and paint her instead as an elderly scold. The screenplay manages to humanize Mrs. Bennet, without minimizing her flaws, as she worries about her daughters’ future, while her husband is otherwise preoccupied.  

Members will also appreciate the attention to detail in furnishings, china, and lavish interiors, which are nicely balanced with lush outdoor settings.  Letters abound in the movie, as in the novel, and there is even a sloped writing box like Jane Austen’s. While many Austen adaptations deck their heroines out in décolletage barely suitable for a London courtesan, this film takes a welcome, understated approach to Georgian costumes.  

In the end, it is the joy of hearing Jane Austen’s familiar lines delivered by an excellent cast that makes the new PRIDE & PREJUDICE such a pleasure. JASNA members who attended the preview of Bride and Prejudice at the Los Angeles AGM recall the treat of watching an Austen film in the company of kindred spirits. Through the generosity of Focus Features, members at the Milwaukee AGM will share the movie we are all eager to see.

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