Movie Review Pride and Prejudice

This movie is about the story that is written down in the same named book first published 1813 from the author Jane  Austen. The story both the movie and the book relate is about Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) in the leading role and her way to love.

“The business of her life was to get her daughter married.” That is all what Mrs. Bennet wants for her five daughters. And this is it what marriage was 200 years ago: a business. The factors which influenced if you had have a good chance to find a partner for life, were the high of the rank and the amount of money you earn.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This famous sentence out of the book of Austen represent the whole story.

The movie start with some good news, the Bennet’s heard about their new neighbour Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods). A man of rank and a little amount of money that he earns without doing anything like everybody of rank at this time. However, it was good news, because there was the chance to marry one oft the Bennet daughters to Mr. Bingley A marriage was that important because the woman were not allowed to inherit anything and if Mr. Bennet were to die, the Bennet daughters would be destitute.

It happened that Mr. Bingley felt in love with the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane (Rosamund Pike). All looked like it ends up in a happy end, but there were some circumstances which made the couple breaking apart.

So, the story is about a lot of drama and it happened, that one of the Bennet sisters eloped with a lieutenant, Mr. Wickham (Rupert Friend). A horrible situation for the family, if the didn’t marry the reputation of the whole family would be destroyed and none of the Bennet sisters would have had a chance anymore to find herself a suitable husband.

Moreover, it happened that Eliz felt in love with Mr. Darcy. It was clear that they would fall in love by their first meeting at the ball in Meryton Hall, even if they did not show that they liked each other in any way. After this ball they met a lot of times by pure chance and especially the love from Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth was visible. But the romance wasn’t that easy to begin. There were a lot of prejudices, pride and circumstances through which the romance was given no easy start.

The movie play in the 19^th century, what is very believable depicted in the movie: there were a lot of wonderful dresses and the houses were wonderful decorated too. It was, as if you look through a window, back into the past. The book gives you a good idea how the society in this century was and the movie does it also. Jane Austen criticized the society of her time among other things with an exaggerated writing style. The director, Joe Wright picks up this critical style and shows it on the screen. There was often a little undertone of irony and exaggeration. And this is which I think is what the movie’s most important message, told in a romantic story: how the society worked at this time and what wasn’t good with it.

The end of the movie was a little bit overloaded with kitsch but nevertheless, I liked it.