Pride and Prejudice (2005)

I always have trouble with novel adaptations, but this one was vibrant and sharp, like its protagonist. Still it felt like little more than a hasty recap of the book. In a blizzard of motion and dialogue I hardly had a chance to savor anything, so the dramatic turns felt transient even as they climaxed. I've never wept over SparkNotes.

I have not read the novel; as always I'm looking for adaptations to stand on their own, assert their identity, even when they're inevitably enriched by their source. Pride and Prejudice was a nice bit of novel-adapted filmmaking, but clearly a novel adaptation, and hardly explicable as a distinct film. Adaptations can be made because the source is excellent material for the new medium, or because patrons of the source want to see it in a new form, especially an exciting form like film. This feels like the latter: created to give a new experience of the book, rather than to stand as a good film in its own right. Having not read the book, I imagine this is a good pleasant adaptation; but I'm tired of adaptations that can't justify themselves as films.

I may also be chilly to the drama because, despite myself, I experienced Pride and Prejudice as a lighter, weaker Jane Eyre. It's no secret Bronte is dark and dramatic -- which fits my taste -- but Austen's dark/dramatic moments echoed Bronte's too nearly in my mind, without the gravity. I do realize Austen's came first, but not in my life, and I have historical affection for the darker, more dramatic Jane+Rochester. I think even the first time I saw Fukunaga's Jane Eyre, having never read the book, I savored each encounter. Pride and Prejudice felt rushed, and I never bought the romance. How hindered was I by Succession?

Still I enjoyed it, especially the visual and musical flavoring. This adaptation had character, but not enough to exceed its hasty motive.