Hello my beautiful watchers and welcome back
to lost in adaptation, the review show dedicated to comparing film adaptations of books to
said books to see how loyally they recreated the original plot and themes. A few months ago I covered the BBC TV mini
series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was the first episode that I did with my
new co producer Kate aka that movie chick and I proclaimed that when she hit the 20,000
subscribers milestone we would cover the 2005 movie adaptation as well. She’s currently just shy off 22 thousand
which is probably a poor reflection of the speed at which I keep my promises... Anyway if you’ve not checked out her channel
you really should, she uses her almost terrifyingly comprehensive knowledge of movie and TV trivia
to do breakdowns of female lead dramas and cancelled tv shows. Before we begin, a quick word about our sponsor. As you know my beautiful watchers, I’m a
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for a bit and/or protect those around them from dreaded overheard spoilers. Don’t be the soilers guy people. Right uhh, Ms Austen hasn’t been up to much
since the last time I talked about her many achievements so for a full bio you can avail
yourself of my preceding video. The short version is she, like all the best
things in this world, was British. She’s also considered an extraordinarily
influential writer, ahead of her time, frustratingly mistreated in her profession because of her
gender and incredibly good at writing the most incredible burns disguised as polite
conversation. Pride and Prejudice, the 2nd of 6 best selling
books of hers was published in 1813. It was reasonably well received at the time,
and even better when it was republished about 50 years after the author's death. It’s a very satisfying book to read, though
as Charlotte Bronte famously critiqued using such wonderfully colorful words; somewhat
hyper focused on the squeaky clean limited world view of the upper class characters. The adaptation we’re having a gander at
today took the form of a 2005 film directed by Joe Wright, another Englishman with a reasonable
but not world shattering amount of credits to his name. Judging it just as a film, my first observation
is its bloody gorgeous. Lots of lovely landscape shots and I enjoyed
the warm colour tone you sadly don’t see as much in films at the moment. A young Keira Knightley starred in the lead
role of Elizabeth Bennet with Matthew Macfadyen in the role of Mr Darcy, her unexpected soulmate. I was also pleasantly surprised to see President
Snow himself Donald Sutherland in the role of Mr Bennet. I also can’t overstate the glee I felt upon
discovering that the legendary Dame Judy Deuteronomy was playing Lady Catherine. Whats up girl. Amusingly, according to Knightley she and
Wright actually made a pretty terrible first impression on each other but, against all
expectations became quite fond of each other over time until they were very close, a development
eerily similar to the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. I don’t know if I’m the only one who felt
this but something about the way Wright directed his actors to speak their lines really brought
a stage performance to my mind as opposed to a film. I guess it could have been the consistently
fast delivery and hyper enunciation perhaps. Her brother will be dining out. Dining out? Can I take the carriage? Well let me see that. It is too far to walk, mama! This is unaccountable of him dining out indeed-
Mama! A carriage for Jane? Lets face it Wright had a hard task ahead
of him with this adaptation. World popular books are always dangerous ground
to tread because their fan bases tend to have pretty intense opinions about what should
or should not be included. To make matters worse he wasn’t familiar
with the book until he got the job AND he had the immensely book accurate 1995 mini
series to contend with which he apparently intentionally avoided watching to avoid being
influenced by it. Let’s see how well he did. Same The Bennet family, consisting of Mr B, Mrs
B and their 5 daughters Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine and Lydia are all excited and whatnot
to hear that a local manor is being rented by a wealthy young man named Mr Bingley because
as a single man in possession of a good fortune they assume its universally acknowledged that
he must be in must be in want of a wife and you never know he might pick one of them. They meet at a ball and he and Jane do appear
to hit it off rather well, though the mood is brought down somewhat by his very rich
but very very grumpy friend Mr Darcy who manages to offend everyone involved. Jane is encouraged to visit Bingley by her
somewhat overbearing mother but gets caught in heavy rain and falls ill, forcing her to
stay at his gaf for a bit. Lizzy hikes there to take care of her sister
and gets into a mean girls confrontation with Bingley’s sister and a sass off with Darcy. You’ll be pleased to hear the line about
checking out their butts while they walk is included. It’s just not Mr Darcy without those weird
moments where you're not sure if he’s being grumpy or horny. Lieutenant Wickham of the British Militia
turning up and filling Elizabeth's head with foul lies about Darcy being a shit to him
in the past, BAD Wickham. Bah! Mr Collins coming round for a visit, who is
the closest living male relative to Mr B and is set to inherit all his stuff when he dies. Encouraged by her mother he makes a proposal
of marriage to Elizabeth, which is thoroughly rejected. Mrs Bennet tries to brow beat her daughter
into accepting but her husband unexpectedly takes Elizabeth’s side. In an unexpected turn of events, Bingley suddenly
buggers off to London with no return plans. Jane goes after him to see what's up with
that and Elizabeth later discovers that the up with that is Mr Darcy talked him into it
like a BUTT. It turns out that Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte
is more amenable to Collins so he takes her as his backup bride. Once they’ve been married for a bit Lizzy
comes to visit them, and is invited to meet his patron, Lady Catherine, who turns out
to be Mr Darcy’s aunt, leading to another awkward exchange of sass. Shortly later big D pulls a complete 180 on
Lizzy and confesses undying love for her. Due to thinking he’d screwed over both Wickham
and Jane she tells him to bugger off, then feels kind of bad about it when he delivers
her a letter explaining that Wickham was actually the villain of their backstory and he had
mistakenly thought Jane wasn’t interested in his BFF so had tried to save him some heartbreak. Lizzy goes to stay with her aunt and uncle,
who take her on a tour of Derbyshire (go rams) and of course they end up at Darcy's house
resulting in awkward encounter number three. I… Hahaha sorry, sorry. Does every adaptation of this book have to
have someone jumping up into the shot like an upper class ninja? While she’s there she finds out Wickham
has run off with her youngest sister Lydia, presumably just to love her and leave her
like a massive asshole, though fortunately they eventually return to her family as a
married couple, leaving her and her family’s honor intact. Through Lydia being a blabbermouth Elizabeth
deduces that D to the arcy tracked them down and bribed Wickham into doing the right thing. On top of that he also owns up to being an
idiot to Bingley and successfully talks him into coming back and making up with Jane. Shortly later Lady Catherine shows up, having
heard an incorrect rumour that Lizzy and big D dog are engaged. Though temporarily relieved to hear that they
aren't, she’s enraged that Elizabeth won’t promise to never to be, which gives Darcy
new hope that she’s changed her mind, which she confirms she has and everyone is happy
now except for Catherine but we don’t talk about her. Changed The time period seems to have been fiddled
with a tad. Taking it from the original 1813 to 1790. Wright has cited multiple reasons for this. The first is he believed that post French
revolution England with its very nervous, guillotine eyeing aristocrats would make an
interesting backdrop for the film, as it adds a level of depth to Darcy and Bingley. The second is he really didn’t like the
empire silhouette, a style of clothing that was popular in the Regency Era. That's right, he changed the setting of the
story because “guuuurl, that dress isn’t doing you any favours”. Interestingly Wright seems to have taken Bronte’s
feedback to heart, and his solution to the excessively clean narrow world setting was
to not only change the time period, but to also tone down the Bennet family’s wealth
to the point that while they’re clearly not starving, they don’t even appear to
be bottom tier aristocrats or even land owners. They live in a much smaller house located
in a rural village which they travel into themselves to conduct their business. Wright called it the muddy hem version. Though off book I can’t pretend my modern
sensibilities hated this change. I made mention in my other review that it
was mildly off putting that landed gentry such as the Bennets, with their medium sized
estate and live-in servant were constantly referred to as the poor family with little
standing in the book. In the 21st century I dare say these struggles
of the lower part of the 1% hold less appeal to the average watcher. Word is the first draft of the script, witten
by Deborah Moggach was a lot more in keeping with the original novel, however when Wright
joined the project, there was a serious push to make the film more accessible to new audiences
which might not be familiar with Austen's work. To this end there's a subtle shift in the
Bennet family dynamic. It would be unfair to call them dysfunctional
in the book, but their early 19th century formalities could come off as slightly cold
at times. The film depicts them as a lot more openly
affectionate and supportive of each other. Wright even had the actors live together for
a month during rehearsals to enhance this feeling of family togetherness. For better or worse, what he seems to have
done, in my opinion, is transplant a more modern family dynamic onto this late 18th
century family. Moving onto specific character comparisons,
I’ve praised Elizabeth in the past for being a sass queen, and this version of her actually
manages to come off as even more so. I always wish to give them as unstudied an
air..as possible. Oh believe me no one would suspect your manners
to be rehearsed. (Lydia chokes on laughter) Possibly because, like with the family as
a whole, they transplanted some more modernised behaviour onto her. That said I think that Knightley, a lifelong
fan of the book, still embodied the essence of the character which might be partly because
she’s expressed an exceptionally keen understanding of the difficulties inherent in film adaptations
of reader stand-in characters. Yeah it was terrifying and I think you know
particularly with books like that but particularly Pride and Prejudice you know people who love
it see themselves as Elizabeth Bennet. You know, um so..you are never going to be
the image that they have of Elizabeth Bennet because it will be them. Bingley’s awkwardness and excited innocent
puppy nature is played up to the max in this. You can virtually feel the actor channeling
his inner Hugh Grant. Its a pleasure. No. I mean its, sorry, not a pleasure that she’s
ill. Of course not. Its a pleasure that she’s here..being ill..um.. Darcy, while still accurately gloomy and snarky,
is perhaps a bit more noticeably sympathetic earlier on. His first marriage proposal, an awkward, blustering,
arrogant affair in the book seems way more earnest in this version, making Lizzie’s
harsh response seem a little uncalled for. It's not all good news for him though. A side effect of making the Bennets less cold
and or wannabe pompous is his reasoning for thinking that Jane wasn't really interested
in his boy Bingley now seems a little shaky. Jane is clearly as openly smitten with him
as he is for her. This version of Mr Bennet is the one exception
to the general warming of the family. He forgoes the book original’s and the 1995’s
version’s quirkiness, instead coming off as kind of muted and disinterested throughout
almost the entire film. Even when he’s saving Elizabeth from her
forced marriage he doesn't seem that invested. The eventual pay off for this is when he finally
expresses genuine emotion at Lizzie’s happiness with Darcy at the end, giving away that he
really does care about his children a great deal. It's a legitimate way to present the character
even if it’s not very true to his origins. Just like in the miniseries, Mrs Bennet can
come off as an antagonistic character due to her single minded obsession with marrying
off her daughters to any moderately wealthy man who will take them. In fact she actually seems worse in this version
because the reveal of just how screwed the girls without husbands will be once their
father dies is left until quite a way into the story and without it her motivations are
easy to assign to pure social ladder climbing and a controlling nature. However this is still probably one of the
more sympathetic versions of her I’ve seen because of the now much brought up caring
family dynamic. You see some humanizing moments of genuine
conversation and affection with her daughters as they offer each other support. Getting into minor things, there's a recurring
joke in the film that every time there's a private conversation going on, the entire
Bennet family is listening at the door. While Mr Collins is still every bit the annoying
arsehile that he was in the book, I have to admit I did feel a slight pang of sympathy
when everyone burst in and started laughing at his humiliating rejection. They added a scene of Darcy helping a very
nervous Bingley rehearse his proposal and gods damn it is adorbs. The ending to this film is something of a
sore point for die hard Austen fans. The book summarized the marriages and happy
lives of the main cast, but that would be difficult to pull off in a visual medium. However few people were convinced that ripping
off the ending to Sixteen Candles was the next best option. LEFT OUT Despite the radically reduced run time available
to a film, It's hard to pin down anything in particular here. Very minor characters like Mr. and Mrs. Hunt,
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, and Lady and Maria Lucas made no appearance but I can’t claim
they were crazy essential to the story. A lot of the plot condensing took the form
of shaving off a good deal of every scene, so the main plot remains in a skeletal but
recognisable form. A good example is Wickham’s absconsion from
the military with Lydia. It’s so condensed it seems almost like it
was resolved as soon as it started and you don’t get the same sense of deep despair
that fell over the family in the book due to the scene just not having time to breathe. The exception to this general rule is the
romance between Elizabeth and Darcy, which was intentionally focused on over any other
theme or subplot of the book, leaving it relatively unscathed. In keeping with his desire to appeal to a
wider audience Wright cut a lot of classic lines from the book as he felt the language
would sound too unnatural and stilted. Final thoughts All in all, I would probably describe this
as pretty accurate to the core of the story but hella condensed. It feels weird to call something that's actually
set further in the past than the original “modernised” but that's the only way I
can describe the feel of these characters. I will say this, whether or not you approve
of Wright's desire to make Pride and Prejudice more appealing to a younger audience, I don’t
think anyone can deny the success of his attempt. The film performed well and is often credited
as being people's first introduction to Jane Austen’s books and that's pretty cool. I’d personally give this adaptation a tentative
thumbs up, but I do sympathise with Jane Austen fans who felt too many liberties were taken. Just before I wrap up, I know you’re curious
about how it stacks up to the mini series. Well the series probably takes the win for
book accuracy just because it had so much more run time to work with, I think their
Mr Bennet was a better interpretation and Matthew Macfadyen just can’t hold a candle
to Colin Firth when it comes to pulling off grumpy sexy. However I was very charmed by Knightley’s
Elizabeth and most of the cast in the film are a combination of more likeable and more
memorable. All that said… The film does not have a wet shirted Darcy
scene so it's an automatic loss sorry. Thank you for joining me, my beautiful watchers. If I could leave you with the usual reminder
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then becoming a patron may be the thing for you. Please take care of yourselves out there in
these troubled times, and I will hopefully see you soon. Neige old boy, play that sexy Darcy song again
and give it some pizazz. (humming to himself)
Please take care of yourselves out there in these troubled times and I will hopefully
see you next time. Time twice? Time Travel! Just before I-get out me hair. My face hair. I just want to look absolutely gorgeous without
having ym sight impeded. Is that too much to ask?
haven't watched this video yet but this is one of my favorite youtubers for analyzing books vs movie adaptations so I'm sure he will do it justice! It's kind of neat to see someone just compare the film to the original book instead of to the 1995 version like so many do
I still love 2005 P&P, lost in adaptation or not. I enjoy the 2005 dingy muddy set compared to the clean, fine lined 1995 set. I felt more connected to the story due to the imperfections of the home. And I enjoy McFadden's Darcy over Firth. I wish there were more quotes from the book in the 2005 version but overall, it stuck with the story and I love it. Both versions are great. Both are lovely and flawed in their own ways. But if I were to have a bad day and needed a comfort movie to watch, it's 2005 over 1995.
Also, the reviewer got Mr. And Mrs. Hurst's name wrong. Called them Mr. And Mrs. Hunt.
It's not very important in the grand scheme of things, but one thing he didn't mention that I always notice in the movie is that Georgiana is a completely different person. Quite an altered creature.