2005 Hit, Adapted from an 1813 Novel, Named the Most Universally Loved Romance Movie Based on a Book

Audiences tend to flock to romance movies with familiar tropes, like a good old-fashioned enemies-to-lovers or a tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. For this reason, quite a few popular romance films are adaptations of acclaimed novels.

The publication Colliderrecently released a ranking of “the 6 most universally loved romance movies based on books,” which included films like Crazy Rich Asians from 2018, 2004’s The Notebook, and 1987’s The Princess Bride. Collider gave the top spot to the 2005 film, Pride & Prejudice, an adaptation of Jane Austen‘s 1813 novel, the list’s top spot. The publication complimented the Joe Wright-directed film for its spectacular, yet grounded scenery and the quiet but exhilarating tension between Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen) and Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley).

2005’s Pride & Prejudice holds a score of 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 82 on Metacritic.

Deborah Moggach Discussed Writing the 2005 ‘Pride & Prejudice’ Script

English playwright Deborah Moggach is the screenwriter behind the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film. In a December 2025 interview with GBH News, Moggach called Austen’s novel “the template for all rom-coms,” due to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s initially adversarial dynamic.

“It’s the perfect rom-com in that it features a couple who think that they loathe each other and misunderstand each other, but actually they are madly in love,” said Moggach during the interview.

She also said that “it was really quite daunting” to adapt Austen’s novel into a film script. According to Moggach, fans of the novel would approach her about her take on Austen’s text while she was working on the script.

“People feel very protective about a novel that they love. Also, people knew it very well. So they come up to me, and they say things like, ‘Oh, Debbie, you are going to leave in the bit where Mr. Bennett says to Mary, you’ve delighted us long enough, aren’t you?’ So it was it was sort of daunting,” said Moggach.

Moggach clarified that writing the script “was a huge joy because it’s the sort of perfect novel.”

“It’s very, very beautifully paced and the big twists that come through the story completely, and it was just fun. It’s like cooking with very, very good ingredients,” said Moggach while speaking to GBH News.