Product: Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 4.0
Imagining Jane....
2007's "Becoming Jane" puts some romantic fictional flesh on the rather skeletal facts of the life of novelist Jane Austen. The result is a charming period romance that will appreciated by many viewers. Anne Hathaway is immensely enjoyable as the clever, spirited, and headstrong young author; James MacAvoy is absolutely charming as Tom LeFroy, the smart and passionate young man who steals her heart. Together, they have heartbreaking chemistry on the screen."Becoming Jane" recreates the Austen family's existance in a rural Hampshire village of 1795. James Cromwell and Julie Walters are superb as Jane's parents, making a barely tolerable living out of his cleric pay for Jane's many brothers and beloved sister Cassandra. Jane is an aspiring writer who entertains her family with readings of her work. Into the picture falls Tom LeFroy, reckless, penniless, and carousing young lawyer-in-training from London, who manages to insult Jane at their first meeting. Jane will repay the favor, and out of a clash of egos comes the sparks of romance. Jane and Tom will fall in love, against the expressed wishes of their respective parents and guardian, who expect marriage to wealthier partners. The desperate couple will be forced to weigh their feelings against the reality of their family obligations.The movie is to be commended for its portrayal of the hard facts of 18th century life; marrying for love was a luxury women of Jane's social class could ill-afford. Jane's brother George, in real life either retarded or physically handicapped, is here touchingly portrayed as a deaf-mute. The movie gives full faith and credit to the strong family ties that had so much influence on the real Jane Austen's life.The movie conflates a number of separate events into a short time span. As best it can be determined, the real Jane and Tom were separated by their relatives in early 1796 and never met again. Cassandra's fiance did tragically die in the Caribbean, but in 1797. Jane did receive, and initially accept, a proposal of marriage from a wealthy young man whom she did not love, but in 1802. The London meeting with Ann Radcliff, a famous Gothic novelist of the period, apparently is entirely fiction.It was Jane Austen's strength as a writer that she drew from her observations of life. Her characters and their lives are still entirely believable 200 years on. Jane wrote the initial drafts of three of her six finished novels in the years around her relationship with Tom LeFroy, whatever it was. Jane Austen fans will note numerous lines and portents from her future novels embedded in this movie."Becoming Jane" is a charming dramatization of the life of the young Jane Austen. If its portrayal owes much to the imagination of the screenwriters, its spirit is certainly consistent with what we know and treasure of the real Jane Austen. It is therefore highly recommended as a good period romance and good entertainment that may make a few new fans for Jane Austen.