I’m not going to be posting a great deal about this project, because my only relative with a Netflix account is a 1990s purist when it comes to Jane Austen adaptations, so it’s not like I’m going to be able to watch this with her anywhere near the time of release. Disclaimer: I tend to be pretty broad-minded about P&P adaptations; I think the 1980 miniseries is the one to beat for humor, and the 1995 miniseries is the one to beat for romance, but the other versions out there have specific virtues of their own, like 2005’s Assembly Ball, 1967’s Kitty Bennet, 1941’s archery scene, and the Italian and Dutch versions of Darcy arranging Lydia’s marriage.
So, mostly, I’m open-minded but kind of meh….
-Handsome-ish, talented 51-year-old Olivia Colman as Mrs. Bennet? Sure, why not? The character should be more like 41-42, since the book says she was chasing redcoats about twenty-five years before main plot, with some implications that she was around Kitty and Lydia’s age at the time. Since she married Mr. Bennet about twenty-three years before main plot, she would have been 18-19 at the time, and was exactly the type to marry an attractive man close-ish to her own age…so, they better cast someone as Mr. Bennet who is equally handsome-ish and talented, in that early/mid fifties bracket.
-Emma Corrin as Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy? Haven’t seen enough of them to have an opinion. Although they’ve done their share of period pieces, I don’t know if they’ve done anything that shows the comedic timing required by both roles (yes, Darcy too). Corrin looks the part to me, except for the blue eyes, easily covered with contact lenses, and maybe the translucently pale skin, which can be downplayed with makeup or color grading. Lowden, though handsome, has to me kind of the wrong facial type for Darcy. Too soft, too boyish, too everyman. If that’s what your Darcy looks like, what do your Wickham and Bingley look like? Also, Lowden may or may not have enough neck for Regency collars, which is important to me although apparently not to anyone else.
-Director Euros Lyn? Only thing I’ve seen by him was the Doctor Who episode, “Girl in the Fireplace,” which is mostly set in early/mid-18th c. France. I thought it was well-done, FWIW, but haven’t seen it in probably decades. Lookout Point, the production company, is a BBC subsidiary. It does a lot of Regency/Victorian era stuff, of which I’ve only seen stills and short clips. Their project closest in setting to P&P was a fairly well-regarded version of War and Peace in 2016, with a younger and even more babyish looking Lowden in a supporting role (see the clip linked earlier for an idea of the production design, but keep in mind it’s about nine years old at this point).
-I am not familiar with the handiwork of Dolly Alderton, the screenwriter involved. She’s done some rom-com stuff, no period stuff. Seven-ish years ago, she was part of a debate panel at a literary festival arguing about “Who is Worse: Darcy or Heathcliff?” She was part of the “Darcy is worse” side, which was operating at a severe disadvantage, because Darcy, for all his arrogance, is a responsible adult who lives by some kind of code, whereas Heathcliff is straight up Dark Triad material. Obviously, in the interest of supporting her side of the debate, Alderton said nonsensical, over-the-top things like Darcy being a short man with fat calves, etc. The Limeys do this debate-club baloney all the time; in context, Alderton’s comments are not really grounds for the hair on fire comments I’ve seen.
-Announcements like the Variety article linked at the start are usually vetted to death by Netflix, producers, etc. For this reason, it is interesting that Netflix is calling this a “faithful, classic” adaptation (distancing themselves from the Persuasion fiasco), and that the plot synopsis is a decent one-paragraph summary of the novel with no obvious alarm bells save one. It describes Darcy as “outwardly a curmudgeon,” which tends to imply a retread of Colin Firth’s gruff, brooding country gentleman(1), softened here perhaps by Lowden’s nonthreatening face. Look, guys, you will never surpass Firth by imitating him, all you can do is find a different path. Do so. (2)
Basically, I’m suspending judgment until the clips start coming to youtube. If they cast someone obviously wrong or obviously right as one of the other three male characters I care about (Charles Bingley, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Wickham), or do something really startling by way of production design, I might do a followup post, but will do my best to ignore this production in the meantime. And before you complain about the tl;dr aspects of this post, be advised that the first draft was five paragraphs and 9+ footnotes longer, with a Peter Cushing reference embedded in the latter. This could have been so, so much more tl;dr.
By the way, I’ve have had lengthy and embarrassing thoughts about adapting P&P in the past, so, here, have a bunch of links:
(1) Or his more articulate, but less handsome and less humorous precursor from the 1957 Italian version, Franco Volpi. Who, BTW, had his own “Regency shirtsleeves” moment, decades before the Brits started doing it to their Darcys.
(2) The character in the book is a reserved but articulate guy who smiles a fair amount, and combines some funny lines with a fondness for debate-club baloney, especially if he can debate it with the young lady of the “fine eyes.” There is no canonical requirement for him to be tongue-tied and awkward, and having gotten three adaptations in forty-five years (starting in 1980) which all portray him as tongue-tied and awkward, one who isn’t that way would be a nice change of pace.
Jaglion Press 
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