Becoming Jane
Perhaps Jane Austen's greatest muse was her true Darcy/Willoughby/Edward Ferrars/Mr. Knightley.
"Becoming Jane," a new film by Miramax, is a delightful and aesthetically pleasing movie. Set against lush landscapes and vivid colors, the movie is a touching, at-times humorous, and certainly very human portrait of the very famous English author Jane Austen. The main drive in this film is the relationship Austen had with Thomas Lefroy. Jane is introduced as an energetic writer and lover of the spoken word, who is young but understands her desire to marry for great love or not marry at all. Painted as a strong and independent-minded woman, there are strong parallels between Jane and her characters: Jane is strong-willed, independent, and not willing to settle, like Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice; Jane is also romantic, swayed to do outlandish things for love and wants to believe in the absolute supremacy of romance, like Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility; and Jane also turns friendship into great love, is able to grow and mature with the help of the man she loves, like Emma Woodhouse from Austen's novel Emma.
Depicted as an apparently rebellious and energetic ne'er-do-well youth, Thomas is sent to live with relatives in the country, where he meets Jane. Thomas begins to open Jane's eyes to the deeper, romantic aspect of the human condition, all the while falling in love with her himself. The adventures of this movie are obvious references to what would become the hallmarks of Austen's most famous novels, while things and characters are still different enough to be independently entertaining themselves. The filmmakers also cleverly stuck in bits of famous text from Austen's novels into the film as though they were stated by Austen's acquaintances and later recorded by the immensely talented writer. The chemistry between the two leads, as portrayed by Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, is very strong, and the love story is quite believable. This is a very charming film that is quite endearing as well.
Written by: Susie Kopecky
Reviewers Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 19-Aug-2007
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