PRIDE & PREJUDICE | 2005 | No prim sense and sensibility here; the style of Joe Wright's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice seems more appropriate for a remake of Tom Jones. And at first all the razzmatazz drowns out the Jane Austen dialogue and her wickedly shrewd observations. But Keira Knightley as the coltish, savvy Elizabeth Bennet restores the focus, embracing her character's physical vitality and vividness of mind. She takes after her father (Donald Sutherland, with a fuzzy face and accent) with her sardonic eye and joy at absurdities. So while Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) goes to work setting up Mr. Bingley (a bland and bumptious Simon Woods) with eldest daughter Jane (Rosamund Pike), Elizabeth is leaving his friend Mr. Darcy (Matthew McFadyen) to sneak glances at her and register the stunned despair of the smitten. The filmmakers (with an uncredited script rewrite from Emma Thompson) deftly compress the narrative, submerging subplots in order to foreground the duel between Darcy and Elizabeth, and indeed they enjoy a memorable exchange during a quadrille. But looks say more than words, and when our heroes at last break through their vanities, the screen reveals what Austen only suggests.