Opinion: ‘Pride & Prejudice’ satisfies through civility

The work of British author Jane Austen has long been a deep fountain of Class-A material for the film and TV industries on both sides of the Atlantic. Austen’s last big run was in the 1990s when “Sense and Sensibility,” “Mansfield Park,” no less than three versions of “Emma” – counting the modern update “Clueless” – “Persuasion” and the expansive miniseries “Pride and Prejudice” all made it to movie or TV screens.

It looks like Austen is due for yet another comeback. There are new adaptations of “Mansfield Park,” “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion” in the works.

Just released is director Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice,” arguably Austen’s most beloved and certainly most widely read novel.

With the help of an impeccable cast, production designer Sarah Greenwood’s eye for period detail and especially the script by screenwriter Deborah Moggach (supposedly with the help of British actress Emma Thompson), Wright has fashioned a film as good as any based on Austen’s work.

Some may point out that Keira Knightley doesn’t exactly match the description of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s novel. Lizzie relied on her quick wit and intelligence more than her beauty. Knightley is without a doubt gorgeous, but she does bring a wide range of emotion – including wit and intelligence – to the role.

Matthew MacFadyen plays Elizabeth’s love interest, Fitzwilliam Darcy. MacFadyen is an actor unknown to me before this film. He is quite impressive and perfectly cast. His performance as the stiff-upper-lipped English nobleman consumed by his love for Miss Bennet matches his co-star scene for scene.

“Pride & Prejudice” takes place in the milieu of early 19th century England.

Elizabeth lives with her four sisters, a loving father and a mother who is interested in nothing so much as finding suitable – and well to do – husbands for her girls.

As Austen’s novel states: “The business of her life was to get her daughters married.”

Actress Brenda Blethyn, who has been so endearing in films such as Mike Leigh’s “Secrets and Lies” and as the widowed Englishwoman who takes up growing marijuana in “Saving Grace,” brings her affability, charm and humor to the role of the constantly scheming Mrs. Bennet.

Donald Sutherland as Mrs. Bennet’s somewhat weary but still much-in-love husband is the anchor and voice of reason for the clan. Sutherland underplays his Mr. Bennet with great effect. He’s a lone male surrounded by six women, but his affection for them all is unmistakable.

Because the novel has been so widely read and so many film and television versions already have been released, giving a plot outline here seems useless.

So, merely some observations:

With a novel as deep and intricate as “Pride and Prejudice,” a two-hour, 10-minute film (the miniseries ran five hours) surely had to abridge, even entirely delete, some of the subplots. Wright and Moggach have judiciously done so. Army officer Wickham’s story is touched on only enough to fill in the pertinent plot points. The romance between Elizabeth’s older sister Jane and Darcy’s friend Mr. Bingley is given much of the same treatment.

But the heart and soul of the novel remain intact.

Cinematographer Roman Osin supplies some dazzling camera work, most notably in several stedicam shots of the various and sundry characters dancing at an opulent ball. Combined with the production design it makes for a stunningly “real” feel to the film.

In 1996 I saw “Big Night” at the Wehrenberg theater in Battlefield Mall. It was in the midst of the Christmas holiday hubbub – the time of year that’s supposed to be ever so joyful while the intense shoppers’ faces and body language communicate more stress than joy. That film was a calming breath of fresh air and remains one of the most enjoyable, much needed and memorable viewing experiences I’ve ever had.

“Pride & Prejudice” is much the same. Living in an age where one is constantly bombarded with overwrought talk radio pundits, inane reality TV shows and morning newscasts that seem only to go from bad to worse, the eloquent language and manners of this story have a calming effect.

It’s a romantic tale, and those who prefer jaded action to Jane Austen will no doubt refer to it as a “chick flick.”

No matter, it is still a great and satisfying film.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.