Okay, so I've finally seen the new theatrical version of Pride & Prejudice. First, I have to confess that I am a die-hard fan of the 1995 miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, and also of the book, so I come from a "prejudiced" standpoint.

Here are the things I liked about the 2005 version, off the top of my head:

• I liked the fellow who played Bingley, very handsome, very British looking. I also like the fact that he and Caroline Bingley did indeed look like brother and sister.
• I thought Mr. Wickham was very handsome -- although he had almost nothing to do in the movie and made very little impression otherwise.
• I liked that fact that the younger characters actually seemed to be the correct age.
• I liked the first ball scene (the assembly). It looked like the people were really having fun and the dance looked crowded and lively.
• I liked Judy Dench quite a lot. I like to see "real" faces on older women! She doesn't look like a weird plastic surgery victim. She's also a good actress.
• I liked Donald Sutherland. He did a lot with his character, although they really changed the character of Mr. Bennett a great deal from both the book and the miniseries. Mr. Bennett has some of the wittiest lines in the book. Here, he seemed almost completely "out-of-it." But Donald made the best of it.
• The girl who played Jane Bennett was really beautiful. (Even prettier than the Jane of the miniseries.)
• Brenda Blethyn (Mrs. Bennett) was also quite good -- a very different take on the character compared to the miniseries. The mini-series character was loud and shrill and silly. However, some of the fun of the character was lost in this portrayal. Also, I think she was too old to be the mother. Assuming her oldest daughter is about 23 years old, I would doubt that she would be much older that 45 or so, given that most women married by the time they were in their early 20s in those days. Donald Sutherland gets a break here because men were often quite a bit older than their wives in those days.

Things I didn't like

• Not a huge fan of this Matthew McFayden fellow as Darcy. First of all, he looks a lot like John Cusack (who I usually love -- but not in English period pieces)! He was not especially handsome -- not terrible-looking but no Colin Firth! Sigh!
• I was positively dizzy during the many whirling, swirling camera shots where the camera just never stood still. In one shot, the characters were dancing around and around and the camera was circling them. I actually needed to look away from the screen at several points to keep from getting dizzy!
• The story was so completely rushed that I'm not sure it would even make sense to someone who didn't know the story already.
• Many of the best characters were completely taken out of the story. As a result there was less interaction between characters, and less commentary on the action. It was thus harder to make out what was happening.
• Much of the comic relief was gone. Some of the comedy comes from the lesser characters such as Mr. Collins, who here was not much funny as creepy.