Joe Wright (1) (1972–)

I absolutely love this film. Not only because Keira Knightley perfectly encaptures Elizabeth's skepticism of the rules in her society and society at large with facial expressions, tone, and the ease with which she moves from wit to wrath with timely and always appropriate perfection, but MM carries Mr. Darcy's lack of social grace with weight and brooding and empathetic shyness, and watching his self-awareness grow is exciting and gorgeous. His walk. His voice, his eyes, his yearning - so so show more epic and heartbreaking. It is not the lengthy deep-dive into the psychology of two very different people, but I feel like it was not necessary as the scenes between these two actors were so well done, and the intensity of their personalities were so at the ready for battle, the words they spoke were far fewer than the BBC version, so every word spoken was important, brilliant and soul-rendering and ALL SO VERY AUSTEN. This is the movie I have watched more than any other (except Jackson's LoTR trilogy LOL) and one that I return to many times throughout the year. Lastly and almost if not probably as important - the music by composer Dario Marinelli is by far one of the greatest accomplishments in movie history. In it's very own right, beside the likes of Howard Shore and James Newton Howard, this soundtrack opens this film and you are already swept away in 18th century England. It is .absolutely brilliant. The fact that I am the BIGGEST fan of Colin Firth will never sway me from saying that beautiful, invested, keen, sharp-witted, brilliant British woman, Keira Knightley IS Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew MacFadyen IS Mr. Darcy. Bravo to Joe Wright. The most sensible, yet phenomenally beautiful, romantic movie ever. show less

A girl raised in isolation has been trained as an assassin.

Exciting action. It's a very original movie, but made up of lots of deliberately familiar elements, with the result that it avoids all the tedium and cliches most action movies are loaded with, but without ever making you work for it. So, it's just The Good Bits, conveyed with craft, style and unusual efficiency. After it was over, I looked to see if anything else good was playing in the theater, because I was having fun.

Concept: show more A
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: B

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.5/4

(Jun. 2011) show less

I was a bit "meh" about seeing this film but in the end I enjoyed it far more than expected. Very much a character piece. It's fictionalised history though and "jumped the shark" for me at the Underground bit. Up to then it felt real if obviously using dramatic licence. But the bit on the Underground - just no, no, no. Take that bit out and it's a very good film, rather than just a good one.

There is no way to play Churchill without chewing scenery and Gary Oldman puts in a masterful performance as the hard-drinking, cigar chain-smoking Prime Minister of England while gearing himself, and the country up for war. This is between trying to appease Hitler and the evacuation of Dunkirk, where it was apparent that war was inevitable. This features many stalwarts of UK's character acting luminaries this kept me very interested and entertained.

Not entirely non-fiction, the time line is show more played with a little for effect and situations exageratted but overall it was a good watch. show less