Pride and Prejudice - the movie

Yeah I know this is not a movie blog, but I was at a movie preview last night for Pride and Prejudice and have some opinions on the movie. When I won the tickets to see the movie about 2 weeks ago, I decided that I ought to read the Jane Austen book before watching the movie. So I searched the net to download the book (copyright to the book has expired and is freely available on the internet such as here). Heh, since Rob was accompanying me to the preview, he decided to read the book for fun as well (and finished it before I did! There's a first for everything!). The book, whilst isn't the most amazing or best book I've read, was interesting enough to keep me engrossed. The old english language can sometimes be a challenge but ever since reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series (where there are pages and pages just describing the scenery), I've learnt to read to get the general gist of the story. Besides, it's not like I'm analysing the book for Year 12 English Lit or anything :P

Some spoilers possible here (although not really spoilers if you'd already read the book :P).

Okay, for me, the movie was pretty disappointing. The characters weren't as rich as I'd imagined them to be. For example, in the movie, Elizabeth Bennet wasn't portrayed as intelligent or as "impertinent" as she was in the book. Her change of feelings towards Darcy was not as extreme as it was in the book, and Darcy's apparent change in character wasn't quite as marked - so I felt that the movie ending didn't have as much impact as the book's ending. In the book, Mr. Bennet (the father) was a rather fun character - fun in the sense that he wasn't the typical fatherly or husbandly figure. In the movie however, he was portrayed as an affectionate, almost romantic person. Mrs. Bennet (the mother) was quite a bit more embarassing in the book than in the movie. The portrayal of Mr. Wickham was not as evil as in the book. And what have they done to the noble Mr. Bingley's character?! He is portrayed as a bumbling comic relief!

I felt that the dialogue and the plot were rather dysjunctive (if that's even a word?) - probably due to the fact that they are trying to fit a whole freakin' book into two hours. Rob and I agreed that we would be quite confused if we hadn't read the book prior to watching the movie, especially with the old english dialogue. I think the movie's weakness would probably be fitting in too much in too little detail in the two hours. And also romanticising everything!! Heh. I guess you can't really satisfy everyone. I truly wonder if I could enjoy the movie (or whether I'd be playing catch-up) if I hadn't read the book.