Becoming Jane dir. by

28 March 2007


Genre: ,
Script: ,
Cast: , , , , , , ,
Setting: ,
Rated :

Image Hosted by ImageShack.usThere really isn’t all that much to this film, which is loosely based on the life of Jane Austen, it is watchable but not memorable. The film amps up the real-life flirtation between Austen and Tom Lefroy to turn it into a full blown romance, with elopement and other such excitements thrown in. There may be some who are annoyed by the historical inaccuracies, I didn’t really care. However, knowing it was based on Jane Austen’s life means that there really was no point in the whole “will they won’t they” drama. You can’t keep an audience guessing when they know the ending.

Apart from that I found the first half of this film quite slow. Hathaway didn’t have the personality or screen presence to engage, and McAvoy was far too believable as the rogue to ever repent. And then there is the fact that Lefroy is Irish, and so obviously one of the “evil English invaders” oppressing Ireland, so he was never going to be in my good books ;) Watching a romance between two characters that you don’t really like, and when you know the ending, isn’t really all that great. I did enjoy Fox’s Mr Wisley though, Jane should’ve chosen him from the beginning. Would have made far more sense.

I also had a bit of a problem with the whole love story. Once Lefroy tells Jane that Show Spoiler ▼

The second half was an improvement, but it didn’t blend properly with the beginning. The whole film felt unbalanced, as though they weren’t sure whether this was to be a light-hearted romance or a sad tale of unrequited love. But on the plus side the costumes were pretty, and every thing looked nice.

IMDb | Wikipedia on Lefroy | Austen-tatious | Monomania Diaries

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11 Responses

  1. Sally says:

    The worst inaccuracy? <spoiler>the spaceship that came to whisk them away!! </spoiler>

  2. Sally says:

    Hey, I put the spoiler tag in and closed it…it still did not work?

  3. 100 Words says:

    Had the great misfortune of going to the press screening. The highlight was a conversation about which I wrote (can't link, too stupid). It's flimsy, to say the least

  4. La Nouvelle Heloise says:

    Thanks for linking to my site! I see from your 101 things that you are a fellow obsessive, nice! I am adding you to my blogroll if that's ok?

    Best, NH

  5. Fence says:

    Don't worry Sally, I've edited it so all is well :)

    100 Words is <a href="http://thecenturiondiaries.wordpress.com/?s=press+screening&quot; rel="nofollow">this the conversation, you can always just copy and paste the url.

    Hi NH, Go on ahead, I've already subbed to your RSS :)

  6. 100 Words says:

    It is – thanks for the tip! Didn't think of that

  7. Fence says:

    Well some comment sections don't let you put any urls in, I think mine'll hold it for moderation if there are two or more, in case of spam.

  8. Carl V. says:

    Hadn't heard of this, but am interested in checking it out. I won't hurry though. ;)

  9. Fence says:

    It is fine Carl, nothing special but a nice evenings entertainment. And it won't suffer from not being in the cinema if you wait for the dvd release.

  10. Sally says:

    What did I do wrong? Please limit the scope of that question to only the spoiler and nothing else! Or else!

  11. Fence says:

    I'm not sure Sally, it didn't show up on my end at all. Could be the change in theme means I need to alter something or other, but you know, effort involved…