So I finally did go and see the new "Pride and Prejudice," with my roommate, since none of pop5 could be persuaded (did I mention I had to see "Chronicles of Riddick"? "Doom"? "Blade Two"? "John Carpenter's Vampires"? "Van Helsing"? Oh wait, that last one was my own fault. Yummy Hugh Jackman, how could you let me down so?).

And the verdict is: not as good as the BBC miniseries. As my second favorite novel by my favorite author, I have read it a few thousand times, and seen quite a few versions of P&P. The biggest problem with this version is a problem that all the movie incarnations must face: what do you do when Austen doesn't tell you what happens next? Most infamously, this occurs in the final proposal scene, when Darcy proposes again to Elizabeth, and she accepts, but Austen doesn't tell you what she says. Movie versions are remarkably bad at writing in what Jane Austen didn't say. In this movie, they added some ill-advised and unnecessary scenes, particularly the godawful last scene. They also inexplicably redistributed lines of dialogue that are in the book, giving them to different characters. I thought Keira Knightley did a pretty good job as Elizabeth, but she was much too giddy in the beginning - there was not enough difference between her and her younger sisters. I didn't think the Darcy looked like a Darcy in the beginning, but he kind of won me over throughout the movie. Darcy is a difficult role to act, since we see him through Elizabeth's eyes; the actor has to win over the audience just likes he wins her over. I think he did good, but I think both Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle did better. The movie also portrays the Bennets' marriage as much too happy. The miniseries did better there, too.

The only thing I particularly liked about the movie was the casting of Jane and Elizabeth. Because she is the main character, the tendency is to cast Elizabeth as the more beautiful actress, which directly contradicts the book (this is the case in the miniseries, and especially in "Bride and Prejudice," the recent Bollywood remake). This movie cast a very pretty actress as Jane, and I don't think she suffered in comparison to Keira Knightley.

I think it would be very hard for a movie to surpass the miniseries, in any case, just because of how far you have to condense the story to make it a reasonable length. The miniseries even cuts plot points, and it's six hours. I think the P&P miniseries is still the best Austen adaptation. I also like "Clueless," even though it is an adaptation only in the broadest sense of the word.