No, it doesn't keep to the word of the novel, nor to the spirit in some cases (witness Lady Catherine's change of heart...witness the fact that Lady Catherine HAS a heart (but you couldn't have Edna May Oliver as a villainess, she was such a sweetie!)), and the word-play between Darcy and Elizabeth has been (to my mind) brutally chopped up and shortened, leaving the viewer with no sense of the subtle verbal jabs and feints the protagonists wield, both with each other and with those closest to them. Jane and Elizabeth's sisterly heart-to-hearts are priceless in the book, well-done in the 2 BBC productions, and practically AWOL from this version. This might have something to do with the fact that Huxley and Austen have such different styles...he might not have been able to figure out how to keep the intimacy of the exchanges while still shortening them enough for a 2 hour film. I've never read the stage adaptation, and am willing to believe that some of the fault lies there (but that's because I like Huxley). This said, I do like the movie as a piece of froth, with its typically anachronistic clothes and vocabulary (but dig Mr. Bennett's chair-ladder; that's pretty authentic, no?), and incidental music that is a mystery (I think they picked the "Hut on Chick's Legs" simply because they thought the girls looked cute running to it!). As many others have said, if you ignore where it came from, it's a fun way to burn 2 hours. I do prefer the 2 BBC adaptations; which one I like best is often predicated on which one I've seen last. But there is something that none of the adaptations really covers...Mrs. Bennett may be a ditz, but she has a point; SOMEBODY has to see to the girls' future, due to the entail of the estate. Mr. Bennett seems quite laissez-faire about the whole thing (although he is forward in the neighborhood in meeting Mr. Bingley and giving him assembly tickets); he laments the fact that the girls have no fortune, but does nothing much to ensure their future. If he guided his wife in her pursuit of suitable husbands, perhaps Lydia would not have made such an imprudent match...but then that really would be quite another story!
Review of Pride and Prejudice
