Product: Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 3.0
Sweet. Maybe Not Historically Accurate, But Sweet.
I'm a big Jane Austin fan, so I had to see this movie. As far as I can tell, it's not literally a biography because much of the story line is speculation, filling in the blanks from the known biographical data and maybe making a wee bit more romantic than the facts allow. But Jane Austin was a romantic herself, so that's only fair.You will recognize elements from several Austin novels, but how much of that is known facts and how much the filling in is anyone's guess. Or perhaps a serious Austin scholar would know. I'm just a fan, not a scholar. The outline is simple enough: Jane is from a family of modest means. Her father is a clergyman, and they have enough children that while they are not literally poor, they don't have much. And of course, to such a mother, marrying off her girls to gentry is close to an obsession, not merely a wish. The local snob (Maggie Smith) has condescendingly consented to her nephew and heir asking for Jane's hand in marriage. But in the meantime, she has fallen for Lefroy, an Irish lawyer completely dependent on his wealthy judge uncle.So, we know Jane did not marry for money, but did Lefroy? And if so, how could he give up his love for Jane to do so? The answers to those questions are too charmingly told in the movie for me to want to spoil it for you.It's a pretty movie, as well as an interesting story well told.