dvd of the week
Burr Steers’ adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s rewriting of Jane Austen’s great 19th century novel Pride and Prejudice as a zombie apocalypse love story is delightfully silly. It is exactly the same story as Austen’s novel except that everyone is also fighting zombies in addition to falling in love while making errors of etiquette. Downton Abbey’s Lily James is the iconic proto-feminist Elizabeth Bennet and Sam Riley is dour but deeply ethical Mr. Darcy. The love story is handled as well as any Pride and Prejudice adaption has; James and Riley are perfectly cast. The zombie killing action is more amusing like Zombieland than terrifying like The Walking Dead, which is appropriate considering the story’s conceit. Not remotely high art, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is still highly entertaining.
