Jane Austen’s classic novel “Pride and Prejudice” has seen many adaptations and reinventions since it was first published in 1813. The novel portrays life in the rural society of the day and tells the story of a young, headstrong woman, Elizabeth Bennet, and her initial distaste for and eventual love of the proud Mr. Darcy.

The novel has been portrayed in extremely faithful depictions, i.e. the BBC’s five-hour miniseries featuring Colin Firth, as well as modern reincarnations, i.e. “Bridget Jones’ Diary” which also featured Colin Firth as the haughty Mr. Darcy. Director Joe Wright has made the most recent attempt at putting Austen’s novel on the silver screen in his adaptation, “Pride & Prejudice.”

This is one of my favorite novels of all time, and the BBC miniseries captured the classic work so precisely that I have seen the full five-hour series more than once. Still, I was excited to see a new feature-length film coming out that wasn’t a modern twist on the story.

When I initially saw previews of the film I was a bit disappointed that Colin Firth had either chosen not to participate or had not been asked to participate in the role of Mr. Darcy. In my mind, Colin Firth was born to play Mr. Darcy, but I went into the film with a cautiously optimistic attitude. I think Keira Knightley is a sublime actress so I was excited to see how she would portray Elizabeth Bennet as well.

I am impressed at how well the film turned out. Wright was able to condense Austen’s tale into just over two hours without losing too many important aspects of the film. I only have two main complaints which I attribute to time constraints; I felt Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship was much more flirtatious in the beginning of the film than the book lets on, and Wickham and Elizabeth’s relationship is whittled down to one or two brief encounters rather than a deeper relationship which leads to Elizabeth’s betrayal. There were also a few moments of the film that seemed to drag, but I felt that perhaps those moments were used to help set the slower pace of the day. Neither of these issues were enough to deter me from fully enjoying the film, however.

A quick warning to die-hard book fans: There is an added scene at the very end, but it is beautiful and touching and works well — so well, actually, I wish Austen had written it herself. The supporting roles, including Claudine Blakley as Mrs. Bennet, Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet, Judi Dench as Lady Catherine de Bourg and Jena Malone as Lydia Bennet, were represented exactly as Austen wrote them. Mr. Collins was just as distasteful as one would imagine, George Wickham was just as deceptively handsome and pleasant, and Matthew MacFadyen’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy almost made me forget about Colin Firth.

This is a genuinely delightful movie. I’ve already seen it twice and will surely see it in the theater again before it’s gone. For all you hard-core “Pride and Prejudice” fans who are opting not to see this film either because of your allegiance to the BBC miniseries or your fear that it cannot do the book justice, I advise that you take a chance on a film that will remind you why it is you loved this story in the first place.

**** 1/2

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