Becoming Jane

I saw this film on March 28th, 2007 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival's Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture "…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life." Heartland gave that award to this film. The "Jane" is Jane Austen and this is a fictional depiction of her young adult life before her novel writing career. I suppose half of the tale is based on fact such as she rejected a marriage proposal, and half the tale is made up to create engaging story-telling. But that's not important. The essence of the story is the mores of proper English society around 1800. Woman had their place. And that place was to give oneself to an arranged marriage and become a dutiful wife and mother. It was even more important to be in these roles if you were a daughter of a minister of modest means who had lots of children to care for. Jane was one of those children. But Jane has spunk and smarts and a stubbornness to live her own life as she sees fit. Anne Hathaway plays young Jane convincingly and Anne's good looks are played down as much as possible. It's Jane's inner self that makes her attractive and not her exterior appearance. And she is so attractive that she has three suitors; the rich and dull one, the poor and roguish one, and a secret and nefarious one. This circumstance allows us to see England from the various social strata, which is fun and informative. Jane, 200 years ahead of her time, shows beauty and grace and charm and spirit, and will not buckle to her day's lot in life. We should all have such courage "… to follow our bliss" knowing we have but one life to live. FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

I was fortunate to come across an article explaining this film. It is a speculative fiction based upon a few facts. Speculation was aroused by the fact that a woman who never married and apparently never had a love affair came to have such a deep and intelligent understanding of relationships. I shan't expand on how potentially offensive that is. But story line is based on a few simple facts. While he was in the country Jane Austen would have almost certainly met Mr Lefroy; while on a journey to see her sister she had a rather long stop off in London during which time she began writing Pride and Prejudice and there was the mention of some letters. It started out so well; the stifling quiet of a country life broken by our future genius at work. The structure of this opening sequence was very effective. I was thinking I'm going to love this film. But there was a niggling in the back of my mind. None of the reviews had been great, but I didn't know why (I hadn't actually read any only seen the 2 ½ or 3 stars). I continued thinking it was wonderful through most of the film. James McAvoy was beautifully intense, Anne Hathaway was solid, Maggie Smith delightfully amusing and Anna Maxwell Martin underused. There were some beautiful scenes, some so intense. For example a scene in a ball when they are both standing back to back apparently to talking other people but having a very deep conversation. But then, as with far too many movies we moved through the climax to an ending of this story line and that story line oh and we'd better conclude this one as well and now everything is tied up in a neat little bundle. This is a film that would have benefited from an ambivalent ending, because, aside from the fact that we know she ends up the Western World's highest selling female author the film wasn't actually about that. The film was about the journey toward it. To have left us hanging when, perhaps, she was leaving Lefroy or back in her stiflingly quiet house would have been much more effective in terms of the story and strengthened the film. It simply is not a happy ending but they tried their damned well hardest to make it one. I'm afraid I must give this a very generous 7 rather than what could have been a deserving 8 had the film makers (or the studio or whoever the twats are that decide on these things) the courage to make this a film, not Hollywood.

✨

Becoming Jane-720P

Becoming Jane-480P

source: Becoming Jane

I would not have cast Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, personally. She is a very talented actress, but this role doesn't suit her very well. That said, this is still a lovely and enjoyable movie, if not a bit of a watered down version of Jane Austen's life. Overall, if you like Jane Austen and her books, I'd recommend giving this movie a try.

couldn't wait to see this film really. imagine a tale of the real jane austen... unfortunately the film is fictional. but still we thought perhaps it will hold something... alas it did not. if you are the parent of the high school students who wrote this modest attempt at austen mimicry, then you should be proud. But if you are the average jane austen fan, you will be greatly disappointed and even insulted at this thinly veiled attempt to create a copy of pride and prejudice for the 2007 generation. it was trite, predictable, followed the pride and prejudice script almost verbatim, and had none of the wit, irony, and brilliant writing that accompanies a good austen novel. too bad. because it did have some good acting and cinematography. but they were completely over-shadowed by the poor writing.

I remember seeing Pride and Prejudice many years ago, it is a beautiful film and I am told that the book is even more splendid. This film about the author behind that and other books in the genre is a very rich tale of love, class, nobles and the mob :) It takes place in the country and London, but mostly far away from anything, so the scenes are very vivid and full of color and natures brisk attitude. The acting is like taking them out of an old book and especially Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy do a splendid job, but the rest of the cast and crew have worked hard to make the personalities, with quirks, errors and lovely characteristics stand out. I was entertained, having read nothing of her works and knowing little about her other then the name, well I had nothing to cloud my impression.

An article about Anne Hathaway mentioned this movie, and so I Netflixed it. The dialog was witty and eloquent, and every word chosen was perfect. I had no trouble believing that this independent, articulate woman would behave this way and speak this way. And I like that the guy who won her, seduced her (mentally) with a book! (Tom Jones). This is a much better movie than I expected, and Anne Hathaway (whom I've only seen in comedies ere now) did much better acting than I expected. I'm told that a lot of the script is based on speculation (because there isn't that much known fact about Jane Austen's life), but as an engrossing story, the script works superbly.