As an English major, an avid reader, and a writer, I have a lot of love for Jane Austen but for one reason or another, I have neither read or watched a single version of Pride and Prejudice. That is, until now. Full transparency, I wasn’t even entirely sure what the plot of the movie was until I actually watched it. Even though I have heard a good bit about the book and film, I really didn’t know what to expect.Â
Before I can talk about anything else, I have to mention my love for Mr. Bingley. Yes, Mr.Darcy is a great guy and he is the best partner imaginable for Elizabeth but at the same time, I couldn’t help but fall for Mr. Bingley! It’s not even that he did anything exceptional to show his love for Jane or that he was extra charming or anything like that. Afterall, he couldn’t even realize that Jane liked him without Mr. Darcy, more or less, spelling it out for him. Even so, I appreciate the kind of pure love he had for Jane. That alone was enough to make me a Mr. Bingley fan.Â
Something that I appreciated about the film was that it wasn’t just about Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, but the rest of the sisters too. I am specifically talking about Mr. Wickham and his weird relationship with the Bennet sisters. When I first saw him on screen, I was rather taken by him, I can not lie. To clarify, I knew he wasn’t gonna be a worthy second lead/a good guy, but I NEVER would have guessed that he would, not only ghost Elizabeth, but also marry her younger sister! That was truly crazy to me. I think the drama with him was what was the most interesting and attention grabbing to me out of the whole film. By far the worst character, but terribly interesting story.Â
Because I have seen so much about the movie on social media (specifically tiktok), I was under the impression that the different acts or romance, jealousy, infatuation, put on from the two main leads were going to be a bit more intense. There is one scene in particular where Mr. Darcy flexes his hand that I always see people go crazy over. If I’m being honest, when I first got to that scene in the movie, if I had watched it without knowing that he was doing so to get Elizabeth’s attention, I don’t think I ever would have caught on that this was an act of interest or that it was done to impress Elizabeth. I felt that way for a majority of scenes that were similar in that manner/with that intent.Â
Believe it or not, I am not very familiar with the ways of “turning heads” or catching the eye of ones crush during this time period and I knew that the ways that Mr. Darcy “showed himself off” is not how men choose to do so during this time period. Still, I thought for sure it would be a bit more obvious. Perhaps it’s just because I am a novice in Love but most of it flew right over my head.Â
I have seen a good bit of people mention how the movie gets better the more times you watch it and that it is easier to understand as time goes on as well. However, I don’t know if I am too fond of the idea of only understanding parts of a movie after watching it multiple different times. All together I think I would give this movie a solid 6/10. I could definitely see myself re-watching it and it was a really good movie, specifically a good romance movie. But was it my favorite romance movie that I have ever seen, not quite. None-the-less I still really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend checking it out if you haven’t watched it already.