YMMV / Pride & Prejudice (2005)

• Broken Base: There is quite a split over this film vs the 1995 miniseries.
  • This film's more cinematic portrayal of country house with an attached farm (actually very accurate) vs the miniseries's cleaner and more polished Regency Era feel.
  • Is Keira Knightley too pretty to play Lizzie or is Jennifer Ehle too old?
  • Is Alison Steadman's Mrs Bennett too annoying or is Brenda Blethyn's too sympathetic?
  • Is the revised American ending too cheesy and an unnecessary final scene, or romantic and a good choice due to the abrupt ending with Mr. Bennett?
• Can't Un-Hear It:
  • Rosamund Pike as Jane Bennet. In contrast to the strict Fandom Rivalry between this and the 1995 miniseries, fans usually agree that she was the best Jane.
  • For some, Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine. Right in her era of playing powerful women like M in James Bond, she was best suited to the imposing Grande Dame.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Mary is popular among fans despite having minimal screen time and no impact on the plot. Her humiliation at the ball, and some hints that she may have a crush on Mr. Collins, have gained great sympathy from viewers.
• He Really Can Act: The director's commentary outright states that in the final scene where Darcy walks toward Elizabeth in the meadow, Matthew Macfadyen is not just another actor playing Mr Darcy - he is Mr Darcy.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Carey Mulligan plays ditzy younger sister Kitty and Rosamund Pike portrays intelligent, if overly-trusting, eldest sister Jane. However, in An Education, Mulligan is Oxford-bound Brainy Brunette Jenny, while Pike plays Dumb Blonde Helen.
  • In Never Let Me Go, on the other hand, Keira Knightley plays the selfish Ruth while Mulligan plays the more grounded Kathy.
  • Jena Malone plays Lydia and Donald Sutherland plays Mr. Bennet... Jena plays Johanna Mason in Catching Fire, and Sutherland plays President Snow.
  • The existence of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, where the the Bennet sisters are reimagined as zombie hunters, can make the film amusing to watch, since most of the leading actresses have prominent Action Girl roles: Keira Knightley (Lizzie) in Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur (2004) and Domino, Rosamund Pike (Jane) in Die Another Day and Wrath of the Titans, and Jena Malone (Lydia) in Sucker Punch and The Hunger Games. What's more is that Lady Catherine is imagined as the head of a zombie fighting organisation, and her actress in the 2005 film, Judi Dench, is best known as M in the James Bond films.
  • Another for the film - specifically Lizzy turning down Mr Collins. Repeatedly. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest the two actors star together, where Cutler Beckett stops Elizabeth Swann's wedding and has her arrested.
  • The scene with Bingley practicing his proposal to Jane with Darcy becomes this with the knowledge that Simon Woods, Bingley's actor, came out as gay in 2009.
  • Watching the 1999 miniseries of Wives and Daughters is funny for Pride and Prejudice fans. Barbara Leigh-Hunt (Lady Catherine in 1995) plays Lady Cumnor, and Rosamund Pike (Jane in 2005) plays Lady Cumnor's daughter Lady Harriet, while Tom Hollander (Mr. Collins in 2005) plays Osborne.
  • Rupert Friend as the social climbing Wickham becomes amusing if you watch him in The Young Victoria - where he's thought to be this but is actually a sensible advisor to the queen.
  • The contrast is even more amusing if you watch him in The Death of Stalin. As Wickham, he's handsome, soft-spoken, and magnetically charming. As Vasily Stalin, he's a drunken, shouting, gun-wielding buffoon who couldn't charm the fur off a sheepdog.
  • Kelly Reilly plays sister to a man whose engagement gets sabotaged by a friend assuming the girl is a Gold Digger. She'd be on the other end of that in Sherlock Holmes (2009) - where Holmes disapproves of Watson's marriage to Mary Morstan (she plays Mary).
  • The Netherfield butler's semi-sarcastic delivery makes a lot more sense when you realize it's Pip Torrens, best known as the constantly disapproving Tommy Lascelles in The Crown (2016), playing him.
• Hollywood Homely: The plain, bookish Mary is played by Talulah Riley... one of St Trinian's hottest Fille Fatales. What's odd is that in casual at-home scenes, her plainness is emphasised. Yet at the balls, She Cleans Up Nicely and is just as pretty as her sisters.
• Moe: Miss Darcy for different reasons than the book (where she's a Shrinking Violet). Her outgoing charm to Lizzie when they meet and her cute "brother, you must force her" (to play the piano) is utterly adorable.
• One-Scene Wonder: Pip Torrens has only one major scene, but he memorably rattles off that three "Miss Bennet"s are there to visit.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Carey Mulligan (Kitty) makes her film debut as Kitty before her more famous roles like Drive (2011), An Education and The Great Gatsby.
  • Jena Malone (Lydia) was reasonably known as a child actress in Contact, Stepmom and the cult film Donnie Darko - but she's more famous for The Hunger Games and Sucker Punch.
  • Rupert Friend (Mr Wickham) later got known for Homeland.
  • Tamzin Merchant (Miss Darcy) would later appear as the much less innocent Katherine Howard in The Tudors.
  • Penelope Wilton (Mrs Gardiner) got her star turn as Isobel Crawley in Downton Abbey.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Charlotte breaking the news about her engagement to Lizzie. She rattles off that she's "already a burden to my parents" and has no prospects otherwise. Despite these reasons, it's obvious she's ashamed of her decision, and Lizzie's shocked face reminds her that she has at least sold out some of her principles for comfort.
    "Don't judge me, Lizzie. Don't you dare judge me!"
  • Mary breaks down weeping after she humiliates herself with her poor piano-playing at the ball at Netherfield. Mr. Bennet tries to comfort her, to no avail. She says that she hates balls, meaning that playing the piano was her way of trying to make an effort to socialise.
    Mary: (in tears) I've been practicing all week!
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The film goes for a more "country" approach to the Bennets, where Longbourn is depicted as slightly shabbier than it was in the book (at least, that's what readers assume; country houses did have attached farms, though they were often separated with a park; but the house in the movie is far from inaccurate). This is in contrast to the 1995 miniseries's clean, polished look.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: This version's Mary is increasingly Out of Focus, despite the characterization and performance being well-received - in fact showing her trying to make an effort at the ball but embarrassing herself with her poor piano playing, and falling for Mr Collins.

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