Knightley is charismatic presence

The film seems attuned to slower rhythms of life in 19th-century England.
By ROBERT W. BUTLER
KANSAS CITY STAR
The world wasn't clamoring for another Jane Austen movie. And certainly not an adaptation of "Pride & amp; Prejudice," which only a decade ago got first-class treatment in a five-hour British TV miniseries.
But like the Bard of Avon's plays, Austen's books are ever ripe for reinterpretation. And the new, compact "P & amp;P" starring Keira Knightley is not only good Jane Austen, it's great moviemaking.
With his first feature film outing, Brit TV director Joe Wright, 33, slams one out of the park. With screenwriter Andrew Davies (Emma Thompson reportedly polished the script) he has jettisoned many scenes and plot threads to keep the running time to only two hours, but has compensated by making this the most cinematic Austen adaptation ever, surpassing even Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility."
By some alchemy he's made a film that moves swiftly yet seems attuned to the slower rhythms of life in rural 19th-century England. His richly detailed landscape has fascinating and amusing characters, and in Knightley he has found an ideal Austen heroine, a young woman whose combination of intelligence, beauty, stubbornness and high good humor is enchanting.
Visually rich
The film opens with an astounding visual passage as Roman Osin's camera drifts through the Barret household, introducing us not only to the members of the family but to the richly-detailed environment in which the story will unfold.
Presided over by the hyperactive, fussbudgety Mrs. Barret (a very funny Brenda Blethyn) while her scholarly husband (Donald Sutherland) keeps a low profile, the clan has four daughters of marrying age: Elizabeth (Knightley), Mary (Talulah Riley), Jane (Rosamund Pike) and Lydia (Jena Malone).
The Barret girls are poor but pretty, and it is their mother's mission in life to see them all married to well-to-do gentlemen. The arrival in their backwater of the rich bachelor Sir William Lucas (Sylvester Morand) sets Mama into matrimonial overdrive.
But being auctioned off to the highest bidder is not a fate that the plucky Elizabeth looks forward to. Armed with a vicious sense of humor, she's capable of popping the balloon of any egoistic male who falls into her orbit.
"Pride & amp; Prejudice" is about inspiring the pompous Darcy to let down his hair and Lizzie to recognize there's a romantic guy inside. To a lesser extent the same drama is being played out with her sisters, who one by one find the man they've been looking for, whether he's a sterling fellow or an utter cad.
Wright tells this story with much good humor, a genuine sense of burgeoning romance and a polished cinematic technique that verges on the flabbergasting.
Centerpiece
The film's centerpiece is a long, unbroken shot following the Barret women as they arrive at Sir William's fancy dress ball. It must last five minutes, with the camera's attention being pulled this way and that, eavesdropping on conversations and spinning around the dance floor.
It's intoxicating, but not pretentious. The film is so focused on character and story that we're halfway through this amazingly complex shot before we realize that we're witnessing a tour de force of moviemaking. And in fact that's the approach Wright takes throughout the film, using brilliant visuals to illustrate his story while not calling attention to themselves.
As a comedy of manners, this "Pride" perfectly captures Austen's attitude, one of droll humor relieving a smoldering sense of outrage over a woman's lot in Georgian society. But it also works wonderfully as a romance about two people loathe to admit their mutual attraction.
In her short career, the 20-year-old Knightley has proven herself versatile with a charismatic screen presence. But this performance will force everybody to take her seriously. She perfectly captures the conflicts within this young woman -- a love of independence and thoughtful pursuits at loggerheads with the tugging of her heart. This Elizabeth is simultaneously a giddy girl and wise-beyond-her-years woman, and in Knightley's hands those opposites don't seem at all contradictory.