Earlier this week I found myself watching (yet again) the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice and,as usual, I had that moment of "wow, this is such a good movie". It's not common to have that reaction when you watch a movie based on a book, especially when said book happens to be a favourite - this isn't news. Director Joe Wright, however, managed to do Pride & Prejudice justice.
Here's the trailer if you're unfamiliar with it:
What exactly makes the adaptation good, though? Well, first and foremost, the trick of enjoying a book-to-movie adaptation is to just stop trying to compare them both, take the movie for what is is. Once you do that, it's all on the movie itself.
Pride & Prejudice starts by having a spetacular score, the music really helps the process of getting into that universe. Along with that we have the excellent photography of the movie, which I think is trademark of the director - Atonement, another one of his movies, also has great photography. The fact that the movie's locations are beautiful is a big bonus.
Setting done, it's time for the tricky part: the screenplay. This is where most movies screw up, when adapting the text of the book into a script you obviously have to shorten it considerably to fit an average of 90 to 120 minutes time-frame, and that can go wrong very easily. Here it doesn't, even at the expense of merging characters together and cutting scenes that aren't frivolous in the slightest. I call it good screenplay writing, because there was enough of the book to keep it recognisable and the changes were made in a way that they didn't affect the flow of the story at all.
Now we have setting, writing and it's time for the good old actors and actresses. With a cast counting with some great names such as Donald Sutherland, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan it's not hard to see why the movie succeeds in this as well. It's also very worth a mention that Matthew Macfadyen plays one awesome Mr. Darcy.
Bottom line is: Pride & Prejudice is book-to-movie adaptation gone right. It should be an example to follow, really.
Here's the trailer if you're unfamiliar with it:
What exactly makes the adaptation good, though? Well, first and foremost, the trick of enjoying a book-to-movie adaptation is to just stop trying to compare them both, take the movie for what is is. Once you do that, it's all on the movie itself.
Pride & Prejudice starts by having a spetacular score, the music really helps the process of getting into that universe. Along with that we have the excellent photography of the movie, which I think is trademark of the director - Atonement, another one of his movies, also has great photography. The fact that the movie's locations are beautiful is a big bonus.
Setting done, it's time for the tricky part: the screenplay. This is where most movies screw up, when adapting the text of the book into a script you obviously have to shorten it considerably to fit an average of 90 to 120 minutes time-frame, and that can go wrong very easily. Here it doesn't, even at the expense of merging characters together and cutting scenes that aren't frivolous in the slightest. I call it good screenplay writing, because there was enough of the book to keep it recognisable and the changes were made in a way that they didn't affect the flow of the story at all.
Now we have setting, writing and it's time for the good old actors and actresses. With a cast counting with some great names such as Donald Sutherland, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan it's not hard to see why the movie succeeds in this as well. It's also very worth a mention that Matthew Macfadyen plays one awesome Mr. Darcy.
Bottom line is: Pride & Prejudice is book-to-movie adaptation gone right. It should be an example to follow, really.
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