FILM: Pride and Prejudice (2005)

You can know a story from beginning to end and still feel excited sitting down to have it told to you again. The star attraction of this remake was Keira Knightley, whose incredibly intelligent face stood out among all the frills of the first ball scene, and who dazzled with her graceful posture. She stole almost every scene, especially when the warm-toned lighting made her glow. The movie is populated with villains large and small (Mrs. Bennet not the smallest of them--how *could* a real mother be so oblivious to her daughters' points of view), which makes it seem like pleasant melodramatic fluff early on. But the urgency of Elizabeth and Darcy's chemistry, strained to bursting by the constraints of manners and misconceptions, soon whips up larger feelings in the viewer than mere enjoyment. I found myself envisioning tall mountains covered with flowers and longing for my own lover. Even over an hour after the credits had rolled, I was still breathing as batedly as Elizabeth when she presses her back against the hidden side of a wall, too afraid to be seen and yet wanting more than anything to be seen. The final scene is fatuous, but the penultimate scene, between Elizabeth and her father, contains the best dialogue in the film and for that matter in several films. "You really do love him!...Well, I cannot believe that anyone can deserve you, but it appears I am overruled. So I heartily give my consent."