Please note: This was screened in July 2017
A movie for the age and a keeper for the ages, Joe Wright’s feature debut brought Jane Austen’s best-loved novel to vivid, widescreen life, and made an undisputed star of the then 20-year-old Keira Knightley.
Elizabeth Bennet (Knightley) is one of five sisters whose mother is determined to find them suitable husbands. Hearing their new neighbour- the amiable Bingley (Simon Woods)- is a wealthy young bachelor, Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) goes overboard contriving a match for one of her daughters. Bingley duly falls for the beautiful Jane (Rosamund Pike). But his even more eligible chum Mr Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen), who disdains the Bennets, finds his growing attraction to spirited Elizabeth handicapped by her ghastly relatives, scandal and misunderstandings galore...
It must have been daunting at the time to bring Jane Austen's signature period drama to the big screen for the first time in 65 years, but it is to his huge credit that director Joe Wright did it so beautifully with this gutsy and less idealised interpretation. Focusing on wit and intellect rather than heaving bosoms, his hugely entertaining take melds realism, romance and wit in a canny balance.