Universal beauty... who knew such a beast existed? Knightly's an actress, like Penelope Cruz, that I frankly find to be funny-looking. But, please, continue with this fervent universalizing.

As for the review, I think Zacharek does an excellent job highlighting some of the pressing social issues that the novel discusses. However, I've seen no hint that these issues would be addressed in the film. Whether it's an excellent adaptation or a shoddy one, it's suffered from a terrible advertising campaign. Judi Dench's face on boxes of popcorn? Baritone trailer narration promising a romantic comedy in time for Christmas?

Thank you for covering this movie, or more importantly this book. It is beyond a doubt my favorite book of all time and one that holds an almost divine power over my life! As with any true Austenite, any new screen adaptation of any of her books brings me a sense of anxiety...will it live up to my expectations? In my estimation, only a few have. I have to disagree with the author about the 1995 mini-series version starring the only man whom I can possibly think of as Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth. Most Austen fans will agree with me that it is, so far, the best adaptation of the book, and that it certainly wasn't "dusty". That said, my second favorite adaptation was Emma Thompson's brillant screenplay for Sense and Sensability, which did skip parts and kept itself to a 2 hour time frame. She brillantly kept to the heart of the story and the characters while maintaining a streamlined plot...so let's hope that this version of P&P is similiar...I will reserve final judgement until I see it tomorrow, true Austen fans will no doubt be the movie's "severest critics".

Everybody knows the first line of Pride and Prejudice, which is up there on the list of great first lines with the opener to Anna Karenina. It's definitely in the top ten of all first lines of any novel ever. My personal favorite first line from a novel is "Would I ever find La Maga?" but that's just me.

I mention the first line of Jane Austen's book simply because they should have used it as the tagline for this movie instead of, as one learns by looking at the IMDb, "sometimes the last person you want to be with on earth is the one person you can't be without." Yawn. What a disappointing tagline. If I myself had to write the tagline for the movie I would have written, following in the spirit of Jane Austen's brilliant first line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a young starlet in possession of a reasonable pulchritudinousness must be in want of an Oscar."

Keira Knightly is not at all a universal beauty in any sense of the word. For one thing she is only 20 years old. Like all young women, she is not old enough to be beautiful. She is merely cute. Beauty is something you earn over time. The French have a saying that goes something like this: call no woman beautiful until she is 30. I am old enough to remember when Winona Ryder was young, hot, artistic, and universally loved. Keira Knightley reminds me of a pre-sullied Winona Ryder. It's like the movie studios have a factory where the reproduce the same general 20 year old woman ever 10 years or so to star in the same general movies.

If you look at her IMDb filmography you can see that at the age Keira Knightley is now, Hollywood had Winona Ryder starring in the exact same kinds of movies. In a couple of years time she will be making her generation's version of "Reality Bites"... unless of course "Pride and Prejudice" is this generation's version of "Reality Bites."

sorry about the typo everybody. sheesh. to have one's shame so publicly displayed like that is harrowing.

Zacharek doesn't have a single bad or even ambivalent feeling about any element of the movie? I'm fairly skeptical that any film adaption of a classic book can be that good...especially on the report of a writer who, in the final paragraph, not only admires but justifies the use of the hackneyed old trick of blurring out everyone in the crowd except the two lovers. Please.

Ma'am, if you're looking for "gritty realism" in your romance, go rent Closer . Austen isn't Dickens or Hugo; they're the realists of that period. Austen wrote romances with witty, smart social commentary. Dirt and depression do not a great romantic movie make.

By the by, the BBC version (and yes, I am a BBCian) is more historically accurate in spades than this one. The Bennetts were impoverished gentility, not swineherds or shepherds. This means that, while they would have had fewer and less ornate dresses than the Darcy women, their clothing would still have been clean (they have housemaids that do laudry, thank you) and embellished in the ways of young ladies that look for any opportunity to show off their homemaking skills, such as embroidery. They would wear paler colors as if befitting an unmarried woman. And I'm sorry...it doesn't cost anything to put your hair up and look nice; there's no excuse for the crazy hair hopper look they're all sporting. Pins didn't cost THAT much, either. Lizzie can look a bit wild, but not like a hot mess.

And Kiera Knightly needs to eat a sandwich. Lizzie is supposed to be a healthy, maybe even a little rounder than the norm. She's supposed to be a lush-looking girl, not a Chanel-wearing rail.

I think that maybe a bit of Austenian education is in order for this reviewer. While you're at it, why don't you rent Sense and Sensibility ? It may open your eyes to the real reality of Austen.

In 1995, the same year as Emma Thompson's version of Sense and Sensibilty and the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice,"there was another (and in my opinion far superior) Jane Austen movie - "Persausion". One of the reasons that this film version resonates is that is was less glossy, with realistic look characters. Amanda Root, who plays Anne Elliot, is older and a very real looking every woman - she borders on plain in a way that Kiera Knightly could never. This movie too, has the dishelved hair, the mud from traipsing across wet fields on the bottom of the herione's skirt - only director Roger Michell did it 9 years ago. The feelings are supressed and acted out in both Amanda Root and Ciran Hinds faces as seperated lovers is subtle and heart wretching.

It always kills me to hear about Jane Austen movies and to have this realistic, but touching gem never mentioned.