In the past two decades, director Joe Wright has directed some of the finest period dramas adapted from literature. Born in England, Wright showed a keen interest for the arts at a young age. He began his work in theater, but he would quickly transition to studying film and art at Central Saint Martins. Upon graduating, he began making short films, but he would find his stride when he made his first feature film: Pride & Prejudice. This edition of Pride & Prejudice has become one of the most notable Jane Austen adaptations, and also helped launch the careers of actresses like Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike, and Carey Mulligan.
Wright did not stop there. His follow-up to Pride & Prejudice was Atonement, an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel. It, too, starred Knightley. While he continued to make other notable period films after the release of Atonement, Wright branched out to making movies based on true stories as well as thrillers. His style and aesthetic of filmmaking has become a standout in the movie world, something that helped movies like Pride & Prejudice seem effortlessly timeless. These are his best movies ranked.
8 The Woman in the Window
20th Century Fox
In The Woman in the Window, Amy Adams is Anna Fox, a child psychologist living alone in New York City. She has agoraphobia, and to cope with it, she chooses to spy on her neighbors. From the second floor of her brownstone, she spies on a family that has just moved across the street. But one night, she witnesses the husband (Gary Oldman) stabbing his wife to death. What happens next is a series of consequences that evolved from Anna’s condition, causing everyone, including the viewer, to doubt the series of events just witnessed. The Woman in the Window seems more like a play at times in its storytelling rather than a movie.
7 The Soloist
DreamWorks Pictures
Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. star in The Soloist, a story based on the life of musician Nathaniel Ayers. A journalist working for The Los Angeles Times lands himself in the hospital after a biking accident, and when he emerges from his bed, he discovers a homeless man (Foxx) is the source of a beautiful violin he keeps hearing in the distance. He then finds out that the man once attended Julliard, but suffers from schizophrenia. Although The Soloist does not have the strongest storyline, it relies on the chemistry between its two leads to keep the façade going.
6 Anna Karenina
Working Title Films
Three-time Wright collaborator Keira Knightley reunited with the director for the 2012 adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. This edition of the grand novel unfolds like a costume party; the set design and costumes for this movie are lavish, decorative pieces to draw the eye in. Anna Karenina diverges from the source material to provide a hollowed-out version Tolstoy’s novel. Highly cinematic while touching on the classic overarching themes present in Russian literature, the movie may be unfaithful to the original but is instead an experience of its merit.
5 Cyrano
MGM
Released after the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic affected movie theaters, 2021’s Cyrano brought period musicals back to the big screen. But this was no Les Misérables; Cyrano offers a lot of initial hope about romance and prospects. An orphan girl (Haley Benett) is caught in the middle of a love triangle as her childhood friend (Peter Dinklage) and a soldier (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are both smitten with her. While the musical aspect of the movie lacks strength in its songs, Cyrano manages to hold itself together with a classic doomed romance.
4 Darkest Hour
Perfect World Features
War and a political crisis loom over 1940 England, and only one man is selected for Prime Minister: Winston Churchill. Churchill, portrayed in Darkest Hour by Gary Oldman, had the grand task of deciding what to do with the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, and the internal discussions in the English government on what to do with their neighbors. Oldman brings Churchill, now dead and gone for many years, back to life in a fictionalized account of the political situation behind England’s entry into World War II.
3 Hanna
Holleran Company
Saoirse Ronan initially starred in Wright’s movie Atonement, which was her first major film role, but the actress and director teamed up to create Hanna in 2012. This action thriller has Ronan portraying Hanna Heller, a 15-year-old girl who did not have a normal childhood. Brought up by her ex-CIA father to become a skilled assassin, Hanna becomes a target by the CIA. One agent (Cate Blanchett) ruthlessly chases after the father-daughter duo, making this a deadly game of cat and mouse.
2 Pride & Prejudice
StudioCanal
This adaptation of the beloved Jane Austen novel of the same name has captured hearts — and Pinterest boards — of fans everywhere. Pride & Prejudice was Wright’s first feature film, and was known for its dreamy, cottage-core qualities. Instead of setting it in the stiff, clean-cut world of Regency England, this version of English history is whimsical and romantic, a tad off the mark for the original book. While it may be impossible to cover the complexity of Austen’s novels in the run time of a movie, 2005’s Pride & Prejudice does a good job covering the necessary bases.
1 Atonement
Relativity Media
Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, and Saoirse Ronan were the standout stars of Atonement. The original source material, the novel by Ian McEwan, was named one of the best novels of the century by Time Magazine, so the movie’s story definitely is not lackluster. A crime has occurred on the grounds of a wealthy English family, a couple is torn apart, and a sister has to live with the shame and guilt of what she did. Atonement applies the lessons learned from Pride & Prejudice in filmmaking and blends them together with the solid foundation already provided by the novel’s story, creating a seamless and heartbreaking experience.
