While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.
Deeply comforting on an aesthetic level. At six hours, it's the perfect length to occupy a rainy weekend or a day sick at home, and its narrative unfolds at a steady, inexorable pace, as gracefully as the formation dances in the ball scenes.
At six hours, this BBC adaptation is a good deal more thorough than necessary... But Colin Firth is magnificent as her beau, haughty, mercurial Mr. Darcy. And there are flashes of Austen's heartbreakingly accurate wit.
[Colin Firth's] Darcy, regal rigidity irresistibly crumpled at the feet of our zingy heroine, is the stuff of a girl's romantic dreams, right up there with horses and Paris in the spring.
Colin Firth is Mr Darcy -- cool, arrogant, cruel and a bit sexy. Yes, he takes an impromptu swim in his blouson and breeches and emerges, dripping, into the melting hearts of millions of sighing women.
This reader will never again be able to open the pages of Pride and Prejudice without picturing the actors in this unforgettable television production.
It's distinguished by a beautifully crafted combination of elements, from the combustible chemistry between Ehle and Firth, to Davies' lively script, Simon Langton's fluid direction and Carl Davis's jauntily rippling score.
A show that fails to rise even to the height of expectations this soapy is a show in serious trouble, and when Elizabeth and Darcy are off the screen, there is not much else to entertain us.
