Pride & Prejudice

Rating

Director

Joe Wright

Screenplay

Deborah Moggach (Novel: Jane Austen)

Length

2h 09m

Starring

Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Talulah Riley, Judi Dench, Simon Woods, Tamzin Merchant, Claudie Blakeley, Kelly Reilly, Rupert Friend, Cornelius Booth, Penelope Wilton, Peter Wight, Meg Wynn Owen, Sinead Matthew, Roy Holder

MPAA Rating

PG

Review

In a modern framework, feminist works of the past can still have an impact on newer audiences. Pride & Prejudice allows the timeless tale to gain new life without sacrificing any of its narrative importance.

Joe Wright’s lush treatment of Jane Austen’s novel is a luxurious treat starring Keira Knightley in a role she seemed born to play. The novel, about a large middle class family struggling to marry off its daughters and save their meager home leads to a series of romantic entanglements that meet with varied degrees of success and failure. Knightley plays Elizabeth Bennet, the second-born daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Bennett (Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn). Her hot-tempered determination is at odds with society’s opinions of how women should act. Her fierce resolve puts her in conflict with the refined and unimpressed Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). As the two fight a war of mental dominance throughout the course of the film, Elizabeth’s passionate stances help soften the indifferent expressions of the upper class Darcy.

Although Knightly is certainly a compelling force in the film, it also features some of contemporary cinema’s most superb female actors including then-future Oscar nominees Rosamund Pike and Carey Mulligan as well as Oscar nominee Blethyn and a surprisingly under-utilized Jena Malone. Even Sutherland has his time to shine in a handful of excellent rejoinders and a singular defense of Knightley’s right to refuse the advances of an impertinent reverend, even if his accent is the lone American one. Macfadyen plays the perfect foil for Knightley’s Bennet, standing toe-to-toe with the belligerent certitude while ultimately being impressed by her matter-of-fact style.

Cinematographer Roman Osin delivers some superlative exterior vistas for the audience to enjoy while production designer Sarah Greenwood, and especially costume designer Jacqueline Durran, help evoke a glorious period of design in early-19th Century England. It’s a well mounted and opulent production that speaks to director Joe Wright’s skill at blending technical achievement with emotional resonance helping Deborah Moggach’s adaptation of Pride & Prejudice stand out in a sea of adaptations the famed novel has received over the years.

Pride & Prejudice may have been situated during a relatively puritanical period of world history but it managed to convey world-weary explorations of wealth, excess, determination, and grit while putting forth a feminist examination of self-identity. The novel helped bolster attitudes towards women’s freedoms. Giving women courage and strength against an entrenched patriarchal society might have been an underlying goal but Austen was smart enough to couch her language just enough to prevent widespread bans. Filmgoers might be far removed from that period of history but they will see in this film an exemplar of strength and forthright purpose from a female character whose view of her own capabilities are certain enough to carry her against a cultural countercurrent and that lesson might still have some merit to modern audiences.

Review Written

October 14, 2025