Product: Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 2.0
depressing and no happy ending
Women were property and had no rights. A good marriage (money) was a woman's only way to have a comfortable and respectable life. Jane Austen broke the rules. She wanted to marry for love, not for money or comfort. When you break the rules you will be punished by society, because society holds on tooth and nail to the status quo. That hasn't changed but people ignore a lot of it today (sometimes at their own peril). A great love was lost because the lovers had no control over their own lives. In the end Jane never married, he did, of course, but their love was solid all the days of their lives (not that it did either of them any good). Society is a hard task master. This is a politically loaded movie. Depressing for sure...no happy ending. Having the love of your life name his oldest daughter, from another woman, after you, would not be considered a happy ending in the opinion of most people. Jane, however, seemed pleased. Basically, the man she loved was willing to run away with her and give up everything (or at lest try). But Jane, being "responsible," and deciding for both of them based on an ASSUMPTION, felt that he would resent her later if she took him away from caring for his parents. He tried, she just caved and let the love of her life go. No gold medals for Jane. He went on with his life and was a good boy. She wrote and kind of wasted away. At the end of the movie she looks frail and pathetic next to her sister-in-law who is about 10 years older than she is. It's not a beautiful film either. It's dark and dreary. Even the landscape is miserable looking. Drab...drab...drab. If the drabness was meant to show how people actually felt, it worked perfectly...miserable, dark, dreary and drab. Blah.