Pride & Prejudice at 20: How the Elizabeth-centric version masters the balance of Austen and Hollywood

Now marking its 20th anniversary with a re-release in UK cinemas, the movie’s popularity remains unaltered two decades on — the enthusiastic response from viewers when the period drama was added to Netflix last month only confirmed that.

Upon its release, however, the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice was criticised in academic milieux for its faithfulness, or lack thereof, to the source material.

Deborah Moggach’s initial script was reworked not just to make the constraints posed by the film’s runtime work in its favour, but to enhance a remarkably timeless story with a more contemporary flair.

Rather than taking place in the heyday of the Regency era, Wright updated the drama to the late 18th century. This was in line with Austen’s first version of the novel, originally known as First Impressions, written between October 1796 and August 1797 and set around those years.

This shift resulted in the movie trading the polished Empire outfits for muddy hems, that were present in the novel nonetheless. "She looked positively medieval," Kelly Reilly’s deliciously vicious Caroline Bingley says with contempt of Elizabeth who, frankly my dear, doesn’t give a damn.

Moggach resorted to cutting some characters and subplots so that Roman Osin’s camera could capture more of the dewy landscapes. Meanwhile, some key scenes were moved out of cream-coloured parlours and into the outdoors, maintaining the focus on Elizabeth throughout.

Marking her first collaboration with Wright, the movie sees Knightley effortlessly embody Austen’s headstrong heroine, a stellar turn that would earn her an Oscar nomination. Off the back of her roles in big productions like Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually, her star power set the film up for commercial success while helping direct the spotlight away from the male hero.

Through previous adaptations, Mr Darcy had entered pop culture as the epitome of aloofness and gallantry. The character had captured the fantasy of readers-turned-viewers in swoon-worthy performances from famous stars, from Laurence Olivier to Colin Firth, with some of these male actors being given a prominent position in the promotional material as well as top billing.

In Wright’s version, the back and forth between Elizabeth and Darcy, involved in the OG enemies-to-lovers dance, is reassessed visually and narratively as a story told from a female perspective. Delivering a brilliantly subtle turn as Darcy, Macfadyen is unafraid to let Knightley take the lead.

"They always call it Colin Firth or Olivier's Pride and Prejudice, but I want people to call this Keira Knightley's Pride and Prejudice. It's Lizzy's story," Wright said in an interview with Yahoo back in 2005.

His approach is apparent from the early scenes of Pride & Prejudice, with the camera lingering on Elizabeth as she reads a book and takes a stroll in nature.

A long take accompanies her to Longbourn — here a more rundown affair compared to the Bennet’s landed gentry, if modest, estate — introducing her four sisters and bantering parents, played by Brenda Blethyn and late legend Donald Sutherland.

For comparison, the 1995 series opens on Bingley and Darcy riding their horses and discussing the beauty of Netherfield. Elizabeth is then presented as she’s watching the two gentlemen from afar, in an addendum that’s not in the novel.

Language plays a crucial role in Wright’s adaptation. Much like the performances across the board, the dialogue feels natural and organic without giving in to overly contemporary lingo like Netflix's 2022 take on Persuasion does, missing the mark on Austen.

The author has enjoyed renewed, cross-generational popularity thanks to Barbie’s Pride and Prejudice joke, which humorously references the 1995 series as a quick fix for mental health problems. While it's no therapy, Austen’s witty, pragmatic, and acute style makes for observational sketches of human relationships that stand the test of time and have spawned several adaptations.

An upcoming Netflix six-part Pride and Prejudice series has just found its two lovers in Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden, with Olivia Colman set to play Mrs Bennet. Written by Dolly Alderton of Everything I Know About Love fame, the drama promises to be the streaming equivalent of the 1990s BBC series, bringing Austen to Gen Z audiences — a feat that recent adaptations haven’t quite managed to pull off.

Tending to the modern spark in Austen’s stories and updating them to the point of no recognition is a fine line to tread, and Wright’s Pride & Prejudice does so masterfully.

Far from sugarcoating a society in which she was also an outcast, Austen lucidly exposes the sexism of her time with a fascinating exploration of gender roles. Pride & Prejudice follows the same trajectory by giving agency to its women whilst affording some vulnerability to its men.

In the 2005 movie, Colin Firth’s wet, white shirt from the 1995 version is sublimated into a nuanced gesture that made Wright’s version a romantic cult for the '00s and beyond.

Macfadyen’s improvised hand flex after Darcy helps Lizzy onto a carriage has reached iconic status. It’s a detail that gives a first indication of the film’s erotic subtext, a wordless yearning in which chaste hand touches are a proxy for sexual closeness.

Again, when the couple dances for the first time at Netherfield, Wright creates the illusion of an empty ballroom, a device he went on to reprise in 2012’s Anna Karenina, a theatricalised version starring Knightley as Tolstoy’s tragic protagonist. As Elizabeth and Darcy’s hands touch and eyes lock, their private choreography turns an otherwise trite ritual of polite society into a pivotal, intimate occasion.

Finally, after Darcy’s second proposal, it’s Lizzy who initiates contact with her now-fiancé. By kissing his hands, she reclaims her power and gives her consent in their slow-burn romance.

Meanwhile, best friends Darcy and Bingley take it upon themselves to flip the expectations of impenetrable masculinity. In a tender scene, Bingley needs help practising his proposal to Jane and Darcy is glad to cast his conceited ways aside and stand in for the eldest Bennet sister.

Despite the inevitable edits to the novel, it’s the ending of Pride & Prejudice — the far superior UK finale, particularly — that confirms the film as a compelling adaptation that’s loyal to Austen.

Much like Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, Wright’s Pride & Prejudice skips the wedding altogether, opting for a tale of two endings. In the US, the drama was released with a "completely, and perfectly, and incandescently" happy ending, giving viewers a sweet-bordering-saccharine peek into Elizabeth and Darcy’s marital bliss.

This side of the pond, the finale was tweaked after unfavourable test screenings, ending on a lighthearted jab from Sutherland’s Mr Bennet, more akin to Austen’s matter-of-fact humour.

All these exquisite visual details and comedic moments are woven into the very fabric of Austen’s story. Wright and Moggach crafted a film adaption which makes up for its liberties in the editing with great self-awareness and the ability to be in conversation with the present, even 20 years on.

Pride & Prejudice is back in UK cinemas from Friday 25th April 2025.

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