That’s not surprising because at a test screening the husband and I didn’t get into because we didn’t fit the demographic, the audience they were specifically aiming for were males 18-39 (we made more than few jokes about a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced version entitled “Pride and Extreme Prejudice”).

We did get into another screening a couple of months later and the ending that has raised such ire was not in evidence. However, the ending they did show was hardly better — a long monologue by Mr. Bennett that brought all forward motion to a screeching halt. Given the questions on the survey sheet, it was clear they knew they had a problem they had to fix.

Now, the version I saw as over 2 hours and 20 minutes, so at least 13 minutes were cut from the film prior to release. However, the husband, who is an Austen fan, was not at all happy with the film and insisted upon rewatching the Firth/Ehle version afterwards. It wasn’t that he felt the “purity” of the text had been violated or anything like that, but he felt it just wasn’t as good (and he really hated the assembly scene where Darcy and Elizabeth meet).