Product: Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 3.0
Jane Austen in Love
In "Becoming Jane" Anne Hathaway ("The Devil Wears Prada") plays Jane Austen before she became a famous novelist. Though the film is based on a book "Becoming Jane Austen" written by Jon Spence, this is in no way a biography as you can see from its highly melodramatic storyline. "Becoming Jane" is not so much like a historically accurate bio-pic as a romance in the vein of "Shakespeare in Love."In fact, "Becoming Jane" gives an impression that the script has borrowed much from the novelist's most famous work, "Pride and Prejudice." Young and vivacious Jane Austen meets a handsome Irish apprentice lawyer Tom Lefroy (played by James McAvoy, "The Last King of Scotland"). They dislike each other before falling in love, only to realize the reality of their situations. These bitter-sweet moments of life, the film suggests, have played a vital role for young Jane Austen in writing her masterpieces, or becoming Jane.In the film Tom Lefroy says to Jane Austen: "Experience is vital." Interestingly, a similar idea was once used in "Shakespeare in Love," in which the young dramatist falls in love with beautiful Viola, and his experiences become the basis of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Twelfth Night." We see the same patterns in "Becoming Jane" (besides the fact that both movies star an American as heroine). As Christopher Marlow gives advice to Will Shakespeare in "Shakespeare in Love," so does Mrs. Radcliffe (Helen McCrory) to the aspiring novelist in "becoming Jane."The biggest difference is that the Oscar-winning film has a group of fleshed out, memorable characters like Judi Dench's Queen Elizabeth. Actually the leading stars of "Becoming Jane" are very good and there is considerable chemistry between them, but the characters they play are not as good as their performances. Director Julian Jarrold heavily relies on the cast including Maggie Smith, Julie Walters and James Cromwell, but even these talented actors are wasted in the story that Jane Austen would have parodied as she did in "Northanger Abbey."