I'm not going to reply about Firth in particular, partly because I haven't watched that version as much as most everyone else, and partly because I didn't find his dimples that impressive myself, though I know others did. I'm thinking of David Rintoul here. I haven't seen that one in a while either, but I always thought he looked the part better than any of the other guys who've played it, and I remember the scene at the ball, when he insults Elizabeth. He really is absolutely insufferably haughty in that scene. It almost seems over-the-top, until you think of the description of Darcy given in the book at that point, and then I think he got it right on the money. Now, as I remember it, I think that Rintoul did smile a little bit at times, but he could have smiled more--and, do you know what? The impression created by that first scene is so strong, that I think, like Elizabeth, the watcher is not going to quickly forget it. Even when he does smile he retains a great deal of that high-and-mighty air about him, and by this time we've got his arrogance so firmly ingrained in our minds that while we might realize he likes Elizabeth herself--and they make his growing attraction very apparent in this movie anyway--we're still going to think he's stuck-up and not very likeable. If he had smiled more if would have made him seem a little more natural, not so wooden (the main complaint against Rintoul in this version), and it would have made his transformation at Pemberley seem more realistic. If we had been allowed more glimpses at his "other self," then we wouldn't find it so unbelievable when that other self shows itself fully.
So while I have no desire to engage in a particular argument of over Darcy in P&P2, I still make my assertion that having Darcy smile more is not fundamentally against the goals and abilities of a movie. It wouldn't ruin his characterization (would improve it, in fact), nor would it detract from the scene at Hunsford (is that really supposed to be surprise?), and it would greatly help with the sudden change of personality at Pemberley. That's my opinion, anyway, and I would love to see a film director attempt it that way, rather than taking refuge in the easy two-dimensional characterization of an always unsmiling, grim-faced Darcy.
So while I have no desire to engage in a particular argument of over Darcy in P&P2, I still make my assertion that having Darcy smile more is not fundamentally against the goals and abilities of a movie. It wouldn't ruin his characterization (would improve it, in fact), nor would it detract from the scene at Hunsford (is that really supposed to be surprise?), and it would greatly help with the sudden change of personality at Pemberley. That's my opinion, anyway, and I would love to see a film director attempt it that way, rather than taking refuge in the easy two-dimensional characterization of an always unsmiling, grim-faced Darcy.