Arsy Darcy
Posted by: Terri Knudsen
Source: Official Releases
Date: 22nd August 2005

He's dry, sarcastic, up himself, snobby and, to borrow a Bridget Jones expression, an emotional fuckwit. I'm, of course, talking about "Pride & Prejudice"'s infamous Mr Darcy. The guy that you, in real life, would avoid like the plague, mainly because he won't even talk to you unless he thinks you deserve it. Yet, every woman in the UK will have watched/rewound/watched/rewound/watched that scene where Colin Firth exits the water in his white, see-through shirt, and sighed.

My question is: can anyone take his place?

Whether he can or not, Matthew Macfadyen has given it a go. You've probably seen him previously in the series "Spooks", or movies like "Maybe Baby", "Enigma", "The Reckoning" or "In My Father's Den". In 1999, he was nominated for the prestigious RSC Ian Charleson Award for Best Classical Actor under 30.

Colin Firth (left) and Matthew Macfadyen (right)

So I've no doubt Matthew is qualified to do the role of Mr Darcy, but I'm still questioning one thing: could he surpass Colin Firth? Colin has basically played Mr Darcy three times. Once, obviously, in "Pride & Prejudice", and twice as the slightly more modern - but no less dry, sarcastic or snobby - version in "Bridget Jones". He has that look about him. Like he was really a Lord born in 1860, by mistake walked into a time machine at 20 years of age and ended up in 1980 thinking, "Oh dear..." when he saw the state of the world and refused to give in to modern attitudes.

The upcoming movie, starring - in addition to Matthew Macfayden - Keira Knightley, Judi Dench and Donald Sutherland, is supposedly a fresh yet faithful adaptation of the original novel by Jane Austen, where we basically follow four sisters and their ever so slightly desperate search for husbands. When Elizabeth (Knightley) meets Mr Darcy (Macfayden), it may seem like the perfect match, but it quickly becomes a battle of the sexes where the big question is: can they get over their pride and prejudices and find a way to be together?

Well, unless you're the one in a million that missed the original, the outcome of that won't be a surprise. "Pride & Prejudice" is released to cinemas across the UK and Ireland from 16 September.

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