To be fair, I am a Jane Austen purist. Which means that I'm probably way pickier about the way her work is presented than 90% of the people who will watch this movie.
I thought the romance between Harriet and her romantic interest was really sweet, and that's literally the reason this gets so high of a rating.
However, I had a ton of issues with the PnP side of the movie. I thought at first that Harriet was going to end up with Darcy, and I couldn't stand that. I almost quit the movie until I realized that wasn't going to happen :)
All the characters in Austen's world were very flat, which I thought was a really interesting storytelling choice because it really made you focus on Harriet, who seemed so alive, even in a large crowd of people. However, the book characters are anything but their actual counterpart.
Mr Bennet: instead of a sardonic man, we see a loving father invested in his daughter's marriage.
Mrs. Bennet: Far from being a silly woman, she rather expressed eloquently why it is so important to get her daughters married off. What??
Jane: Jane was bolder than she should have been, but all around she and the Bingleys were the only people who felt in character.
Lizzy: I am really sorry, because I wanted to love this Lizzy so much. But she came across as abrasive and a little mean. Lizzy's wit is not harsh, in fact most of PnP she's laughing at the other characters and they don't even know it. She doesn't mock them. She's not derisive, she's amused by her family's antics. Plus, she is so consumed with preventing Lydia from running off that she would never in a million years consider doing it herself.
Mary: Not much to say, but where are the religious anecdotes? Where is the proud, modest girl? She just seems like one of the rest of them, and that's not Mary.
Kitty: Pretty good rendition of Kitty. There's not much you can do with her character.
Lydia: She was okay, but not forward enough. Lydia is loud and showy, but this girl never pushed herself out in front to get attention like the book-Lydia would do.
Darcy: What isn't wrong with him? I tried so hard to like him, but they messed up his insult to Lizzy (how could they do that!?) and then proceeded to make him do so many out of character things that I stopped liking him about halfway through the movie. In fact, at one point, he corners a young lady in a garden, telling her he loves her, and tries to kiss her, all after meeting her like twice. What????? Darcy is THE epitome of gentlemanliness (well, mostly. Knightley from Emma is better lol) This is so out of character it's baffling to me.
Bingley and Caroline: Pretty good. Honestly, one of the better portrayals I've seen of Bingley. Caroline was, well, Caroline.
Wickham: The point of running away with Lydia and lying to Elizabeth was to hurt Darcy, because he loved Lizzy, and since that didn't happen, there was little to no explanation for why he did what he did.
There were other small things, like the lack of gloves or forgettable side plots that I didn't like.
I enjoyed this movie, but it wasn't really Pride and Prejudice. However, it was a really fun movie and Eliza Bennett carried the whole thing for me. I really love her performances, and that's ultimately why I liked this.
