Movie Review: Pride & Prejudice
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What Parents Should Know
Parents should know that the movie includes discussions of
marriage for money. Set in 19th century England, it offers a
mostly gentle, sometimes incisive critique of class and gender
systems. Characters drink at a party, make sexual allusions,
and argue with one another concerning money and romance.
Families can discuss Elizabeth's rebelliousness: How does she worry her mother but also inspire her father's loyalty? How do the parents handle their disagreement about Elizabeth's choices? How does Elizabeth protect her sisters, and how does Darcy seem like a worthy match for her?
They can also compare the movie to the book. How does this Elizabeth compare to the one they imagined?
Common Sense Media Review
PRIDE & PREJUDICE is punctuated with tinkly piano fills
and golden-lit fields, and salvaged by Keira Knightley's
remarkable charm. She's well suited to play Elizabeth Bennet,
famously self-directed and stubborn, an "independent woman" a
century before Destiny's Child named the type. While she's a
good girl, looking after her four sisters, trying to appease
her mother (Brenda Blethyn), and doting on her daddy (Donald
Sutherland), she also wants more than marriage to a boring man
who happens to have money.
She's also destined to find her match, here an utterly uninteresting Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). They meet at a ball near her family home, Darcy being a guest of the well-heeled, if bumbling Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) and his haughty sister Caroline (Kelly Reilly). Their arrival in town sets the Bennets, especially the bubbly Mrs., into a tizzy, as the girls are looking for wealthy husbands, since their own respectable but small family estate is set to be inherited by the nearest male heir, Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander).
Thus begins the usual Austen pairing off, designated couples defined, divided, and brought back together. Upright sort Bingley ("I'm not a big reader, I prefer being out of doors") falls for Elizabeth's bland sister Jane (Rosamund Pike), and Darcy starts squabbling with Elizabeth. He broods and grumps, she's given to pensive rhapsodies, twisting round and round on a rope swing in the family barn, the image slowed down to make sure you note her daunting loveliness. Darcy certainly does -- again and again, even as he does his best to resist, by disparaging the locals ("I find the country perfectly adequate") and convincing Bingley to abandon Jane.
Though their volatile romance is the basis for Austen's class critique, it's a romance, and Elizabeth must come to realize not only that she is attracted to this difficult fellow but also that he's generous and tender, perfectly adequate boyfriend material, and only a bit oppressed by his own relative, the ferocious Lady Catherine (Judi Dench). When she makes a late night visit to the Bennets to warn Elizabeth to keep away from her nephew, the younger woman takes this as a challenge on two fronts: one, she's just now learned that Darcy actually "likes" her (in high school fashion), and two, she now has a more formidable force to fight in the awesome shape of Lady Catherine.
Still, the film follows Austen's shape without Austen's sharpness. The tinkly piano annoys, the expansive landscapes look romantic. And Elizabeth can make the sentimental choice at last, when she actually falls in love with her monied, much desired object.
Families who like this movie should also see Bride & Prejudice (2004), Clueless (1995), the BBC's miniseries, Pride and Prejudice (1995), and Ang Lee's lovely Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
