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Reviews |
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| Pride and prejudice |
| Esme Shirt |
| Published 17 January 2006 |
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Single man … must be in want of a wife!
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Cert. U
Director: Joe Wright
2 hours 7 minutes
It is a truth no longer universally acknowledged that most men and women would like to be married. Some things have not changed in the two centuries since the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
The latest film adaptation of this beloved fiction concentrates on the path to marriage of two couples: Jane Bennett and Bingley, Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy. A two-hour film can hardly even aim to do justice to the finely observed nuances of the various relationships, nor to the cleverly paced gradual unpeeling of the secrets and motives of the characters in this literary masterpiece. So the screenwriter has made Mr. and Mrs. Bennett less acrimonious, Mrs. Bennett and Lydia less appalling, and Wickham less the calculating cad.
Elizabeth herself, winningly played by Keira Knightley, despite the intelligent words put in her mouth, has less depth than either Jane Austen’s creation or Jennifer Ehle’s portrayal in the famous BBC production of the 1990s. This Elizabeth giggles a lot. Darcy is awkward in his manners and clueless in his approach, rather than downright haughty and offensive. The journey each character makes in the film is therefore less wonderful and Darcy’s sacrificial redemptive act in intervening in the affairs of Lydia and Wickham is less powerful.
Having said that, this is a beautifully crafted film, worthy of being enjoyed for what it is. There is a real rustic spirit to it, with lots of mud, and farmyard fowl and misty mornings over English meadows. And the film is broadly faithful to the spirit, if not always the letter of the book. The spirit of the book is to do with the need to be married and the impediments to finding someone who is both willing and able to do so. This is a preoccupation of many contemporary people of either gender. Just look around you in the churches.
The context is very different from today of course: women in 2005 can have social standing and financial independence without a husband, which was certainly not the case 200 years ago. But independent successful women can be just as desperate to be married as the Bennett girls and as liable to compromise as Charlotte Lucas. And modern single girls, for all their show of strength, can feel just as helpless to do anything towards a change in marital status.
Meanwhile, men, awkward and tongue-tied in the face of such apparent female power, still hold all the cards. This adaptation of Pride and Prejudice rings bells then. The Bennett girls are shown as strong as well as helpless; Bingley and Darcy, and even Mr. Collins, for all their social and financial advantages, are not a little cowed by them.
Eventually our heroes get there: Bingley finds the courage, Darcy the humility to finally declare themselves acceptably. They take the risk; they win the prize. And everyone is thoroughly satisfied. I don’t suppose many Christian single men will watch this film, but they could learn something. A man must make the first move, risky as that is, towards matrimony. Any man who will not do that is unworthy of a good woman’s affection.
Esme Shirt
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© Evangelicals Now
This column is used with permission. |
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