Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Pride & Prejudice / UK / 2005

I realize this entry is going to put me in the same league with the Jane Austen purists who complained about the specter of a well-endowed wild boar sauntering through the Bennet household in the middle of the film, but whatever: I’ve just learned that the version of this movie playing in US theaters is eight minutes longer than the UK version. The reason: British audiences detested the saccharine ending, whereas studio executives predicted American crowds would lap it up. To director Joe Wright’s credit, he chooses to stray from the predictable route of ending the film with a wedding (as all the Austen adaptations I’ve seen – and I’ve seen many – have), instead closing with a shot of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy cooing at each other on the grounds of his large estate, and Darcy affectionately addressing his new wife as “Mrs. Darcy.”

Up until this point, I found the movie thoroughly engrossing. Having admired his angst-ridden performance in the BBC series Spooks (released in the States as MI-5), I was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of Matthew MacFadyen playing Darcy, and while he is no Colin Firth, he does a solid job in the role. Keira Knightley also surprised me with her lively performance as Elizabeth Bennet (though I still peg her as a better-suited to play Catherine Morland, the heroine of Northanger Abbey), and the rest of the cast does a marvelous job of bringing the intricacies of Austen’s text to life.

What bothered me about the ending, however, was the notion of Lizzie being subsumed by her husband’s identity. One of the incredible things about the novel, which was published roughly 200 years ago, is the vast spectrum of relationships Austen wittily portrays. We are shown an enduring marriage between two highly incompatible people (Mr. & Mrs. Bennet), a match fueled by youthful passion (Lydia & Wickham), a pairing formed on the basis of financial and personal stability (Charlotte Lucas & Mr. Collins), a happy couple evenly matched in temperament (Jane & Mr. Bingley), and a probable spinster (Mary).

At the center of this is Elizabeth, one of the most enduring female characters in literary history. Austen makes no attempt to hide her flaws, but the refreshing thing here is that she and Darcy both have to change to find happiness together. Even so, Lizzie refuses to compromise the fierce sense of individuality that drew Darcy to her in the first place. In a society where her only options are to wed or wind up alone and penniless, she defiantly turns down two offers of marriage from suitors she deems unfit. By the end of the novel, she has achieved happiness on her own terms and is still very much Elizabeth Bennet, not Mrs. Darcy.

by Beth Gilligan | Source: Focus Features 35mm print
16 Nov 2005 11:31 AM | Submit Comment