A misconceived effort to 'update' Austen. Embarrassingly overt sexual and political subtexts leer at you from every place the filmmaker could cram them in against the sense of the book. The acting is quite good, especially O'Conner and Pinter, but much of the production design and soundtrack seems a rip from the excellent 'Remains of the Day'. The worst is that there is nothing literary left - not the first time a director's agenda betrays that they just don't get why literature exists in the first place. Try 'Persuasion' instead, and after that ANY of the other contemporary Austen adaptations.