Product: Becoming Jane [Blu-ray] (2007)
Rating: 5.0
McAvoy and Hathaway are superb!
Having been a great fan of Jane Austen's novels growing up, I was interested to see this movie. It was a delightful surprise--much more engaging than I expected, despite the staid environment in which Austen lived. Anne Hathaway is outstanding in the role of Jane, and James McAvoy is terrific as her suitor. Hathaway plays Jane largely as I imagined her, an independent thinker stuck in a world where it was improper for women to have independent thoughts. The handsome and dashing McAvoy is not just manly but also quite compelling in his role. He infuses it with passion and adventure, making every scene that he is in better and every scene without him a disappointment. Together, Hathaway and McAvoy sizzle. The period in English history that the story is set in can be considered one of the characters in the movie; it is uptight, ridiculous in some of its conventions, and materialistic in its view of marriage and matches. While Austen resists fitting into polite sociey for frivolous reasons of social obligation, in the end she finds that her life is to some extent bound by it in spite of her brash independence. This is a story about a historical period, but it is much more a love story that is set ablaze by the great acting of the two key actors. Although the other characters give good performances, the love between Jane and Tom is unforgettable.