Went to see the latest movie of the Jane Austen book tonight. I quite enjoyed it. I got fixated early with the impression that Keira Knightley seemed to have a very large chin. In fact, from where I was sitting just about everyone in the film seemed to have a large chin. I think they were using the "large chin" camera. Large chins aside, I also worried about the hair of those taking part. For the first part of the film nobody seemed to have discovered conditioner or indeed shampoo, with greasy hairlines and lank strands all over the place. All except Mr. Bingley, who seemed to have cornered the market in hair gel and used it fashion a monstorous confection on the top of his bonce. In the second half Elizabeth Bennet et all seemed to have discovered the benefits of proper hair care, and things picked up a bit in this respect..

Number one wife, who regards the book as perhaps the finest story ever told, is somewhat unconvinced of the tweaks they've done to plot and dialogue. Mr. Bennet (played by that old stager Donald Sutherland) is a bit too much of a slob for me, Mr Darcy is meant to be wooden and stand-offish, a part which suits Matthew MacFadyen the actor who plays him a treat as it is the only thing he can play. Keira Knightley is OK as the heroine, but in a story which calls for much heaving of bosoms during longing looks at Mr. Darcy she was somewhat underqualified. There is also the issue that when she scrunches her face up to look super-excited she does end up resembling the singer Jamie Cullum.

There was a serious shortage of car chases and alien invasions, which was a bit of a failure from my point of view, but the evocation of Olde England (tm) was done very well. There were some lovely long shots where the camera wandered through what must have been enormous sets during the dance sequences, picking up snatches of dialogue along the way. These must have been very tricky to film, but they worked well.

Not really my cup of tea. But quite nice tea none the less.