At long last, after much speculation based on photos and spoilers, the trailer for the latest version of Pride and Prejudice is out. It looks, as I'd expected, visually stunning. And there's a charming comedic element---especially with Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins. But what I saw of Elizabeth and Darcy makes me a little anxious.

Darcy appears quiet and uncomfortable, not the least proud or difficult to like, which has the added effect of making Elizabeth seem catty and judgemental. On top of that, she's forward---"Do you dance, Mr. Darcy?" ::cue Austen rolling in her grave::---and hoydenish, gathering her skirts to her knickers to avoid a mud puddle. Uh. Hello? She arrives at Netherfield with her petticoat "six inches deep in mud" because she *doesn't* kick up her skirts, you eejits.

Elizabeth Bennet is witty and charming, exuberant and independent, but she is still very much a lady of her time, adhering to etiquette and protocol with the best of them. This is why she is so wonderful---and unique. She maintains her delightful self within those structures. Otherwise, she might as well be a lightskirt and get it over with.

And I am a little concerned over the script. Austen's prose is so beautiful---and in most particulars *not* that difficult to understand. And yet they've changed Darcy's "I have not the talent which some people possess of conversing easily with those I have never seen before" to the pointlessly paraphrased "I do not have the talent of conversing easily with people I have never met before."

And what were they thinking taking Elizabeth's wonderful, "I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry" and chopping it into the abrupt, awkward, "From the first moment I met you, your arrogance made me realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever marry"? Made me realize?! That there's good English, ayup.

All I can say is that they'd better not have altered the best lines in the book: "In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

Or there *will* be dire consequences. Mark my words. ::glowering at screenwriters::

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