P&P goes BANG when it starts, posho is moving next door and we are in the ball. Whup, there is Mr D’Arcy all sideburned up and glowery. He glowers too much, and Keira Knightly is too giggly early doors but it doesn’t matter because this is JANE AUSTEN and its all about the plot and the pride and the prejudice. Its basically the story of stupid people falling in love, and as the basic template of THEY HATE EACH > THEY LUVS EACH OTHER it has been responsible for more ill in the rom-com world that anything else.
RULE ONE: Donald Sutherland is always bad.
RULE TWO: Whiskers do not do your acting for you.
RULE THREE: Tell Brenda Blethyn she isn’t in a half hour ITV sitcom.
Oh it all works well, and people get rained on, get steamy, ride horses, and spin around on swings so much it makes you dizzy. Like all rom-coms the plot is far too complicated for its own good, and relies of us being sympathetic to people acting stupidly. But hey, Mr D’Arcy lives in the British Museum, you would want any girl to end up with him. Especially if she is going to turn out to be a Bounty Hunter next week.