From the title, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES seems like a low budget flick made to bring in as many bored people as possible with its ridiculous concept. Surprisingly, much like the now zombiefied classic romantic character of George Wickham, there is more to this than meets the eye. The original book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES was published in 2009 by Seth Grahame-Smith. As any self-respecting author would rather not desecrate classic literature, Grahame-Smith’s “gimmick” becomes a tool that adds humor and contemporary flavor to the tale without detracting too much from the characters. In fact, the book was met with near universal praise and spawned a series of twists on public domain (my favorite being Android Karenina). Now in 2016, the movie comes to blend humor and literature, and does nothing but surpass my expectations. The film is in no way great, but good enough to justify its ridiculous existence.
The plot of the film follows that of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE… but with zombies. As I never read the Jane Austin novel I can’t speak on its faithfulness, but it seems much of the climax was invented for the film, unless PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is a much more violent novel than I was lead to believe. For those unacquainted, the sisters Elizabeth and Jane are the eldest of the five girls in the Bennet family. When Mr. Bingley, a wealthy charismatic bachelor arrives in town, he and Jane begin a relationship, soon to be complicated by Mr. Darcy, a friend of Bingley and a cold and callous man. Elizabeth, as the strong willed witty daughter initially despises Darcy, but over the course of the film/book/otherbook their relationship transforms.
The cast of the film is incredible as Lily James from Downton Abbey (playing Elizabeth Bennet) leads the film while Lena Headey, Charles Dance, and Matt Smith lend support. Matt Smith’s hammed up comic relief is consistently well performed, and his comedic chops deserve praise. In the other main role as Mr. Darcy, Sam Riley’s performance is less admirable, though still well performed and all of the cast is good enough to keep the immersion.
The humor in the movie is well done, as Matt Smith may have the only comedic lines in the film, the obvious ridiculousness in played up and scenes in which serious discussions are had over shaolin hand to hand combat. Given the amount of comedy productions around that are basically stand up routines on film, it’s almost refreshing to see the visual comedy played to its strength here.
While the film does deserve all the praise I give it for surpassing expectations, the drama and comedy never fully blend and the last half hour seems overly serious for everything that leads up to it. Zombies and literature joke wear out their welcome after some time, and it doesn’t help that the movie tries to become a horror-drama flick. The second half loses its energy and becomes more like a cheap SyFy production. While I walked out of the theater pleased, the film is still only as good as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES can be. Good on it for the effort, but relative to other films it falls flat.
