Product: Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 4.0
Sweet Resignation
Just like `Shakespeare in Love' before it and more recently with `Moliere,' `Becoming Jane' speculates on real life persons and events that explain the inspiration of hallmark British author, Jane Austin. More true and less mirthful than the other two movies, this film is handsome and engaging from start to finish.Able to become that Jane is Anne Hathaway, who certainly is less tart and assertive than Keira Knightly who perennial plays characters from her novels. Very human in import, she borrows those mannerisms she perfected in `Brokeback Mountain' to good effect here. For subtlety is needed for the brilliant wordsmith who needed her novels as a vicarious method to live out the romantic elements she only partly afforded in her own life. As we read volumes written on her face, we see her absorb her source material as her own love interest seems to slip from her fingers.Her most potential suitor is an Irish pugilist, Tom Lefroy, played with skill by James McAvoy (who in a subjective way may be suffering from overexposure as the leading romantic man, but has shown an acting repertoire that has been impressive since the `Narnia' days, playing an enchanting and vulnerable Mr. Tumnus, and an equally vulnerable, but more nuanced protagonist, Nicholas, in `The Last King of Scotland'). Despite that minor objection, he plays the leading romantic man assertively, even if we've seen that suit so often recently with the likes of `Atonement' and `Starter for Ten'. With supporting performances by James Chromwell, Maggie Smith, and Julie Walters, the tension of her dilemma is properly delivered and the chemistry is measurable indeed.Here Jane lives precariously. She is in danger of losing her priority, which is love. As was common in her time, her chosen suitor was of little interest to her, but of great practical import for her family. "Affection is desirable, but money is absolutely indispensible," Mrs. Austen (Julie Walters) asserts. It seems that between the limitations of her love interest and the covetousness of her suitor, she historically will take her pen to live out the romantic interests of others. With her pen, she obtained the autonomy that few of her peers attained. Her loss has been our gain.`Becoming Jane' is an absorbing account that has enough historical evidence (albeit her letters) to back it up. If you love movies with similar subject matter, then this one quickly gets your interest and keeps it going until the last frame.