Pride and Prejudice

Herald rating: * * *

Jane Austen's etching of 18th-century English mores - Mrs Bennet wants to marry off her five daughters and improve her social standing, No 2 Elizabeth wants to marry for love - has been told so often, is so much a part of every fourth-form girl's life experience, that we won't go into the details (you want 'em, you google 'em).

So, the headlines: Keira Knightley is superior, though she didn't get the Oscar for re-hashing Miss Lizzy for the 10th time since 1938. Matthew Macfadyen provides vulnerability and layering to Mr Darcy.

The usual suspects - Dame Judi, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland - are a vividly drawn family portrait gallery but first-time director Joe Wright adds little to an oft-told tale.

But Austen addicts really should invest in the DVD, because its many extra features put the writer's intentions into sharp relief. Macfadyen offers a perspective on those buttoned-down times and customs, with Wright, in The Politics Of Dating. Wright and the cast continue this theme in The Bennets. Knightley fronts The Life And Times Of Jane Austen, a biography set in the writer's last home.

The Stately Homes Of Pride And Prejudice shows off five key locations and On Set Diaries catches the actors between takes. The most controversial aspect of Wright's film - the final lovers' kiss that had to be added to the US version to spell it out for the hard-of-thinking - is another feature, followed by shorts clarifying the family tree, costumes, props and production design.

* Dvd, video rental today