Becoming Jane
| Year: | 2007 |
| Production Co: | 2 Entertain |
| Studio: | Miramax |
| Director: | Julian Jarrold |
| Writer: | Kevin Hood |
| Cast: | Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith |
This imagined biopic of the life of Jane Austen was inventive but very slow and drab.
It actually makes a stronger comment on class and privilege in the era Austen lived in; at every turn, the aspiring writer (Hathaway) has to consider the financial implications of her actions as it would be virtually impossible for a genteel woman to make her own living, even when her heart tells her she wants to be with the miscreant lawyer Lefroy (McAvoy).
It turns into something of an Elizabeth story, Austen becoming like the titular queen, forever a virgin, married to the greater good of her art and sacrificing her heart in the process.
It's just dramatic and touching enough to make you care, but there's a lot of colourless landscape to move through to get there.
It actually makes a stronger comment on class and privilege in the era Austen lived in; at every turn, the aspiring writer (Hathaway) has to consider the financial implications of her actions as it would be virtually impossible for a genteel woman to make her own living, even when her heart tells her she wants to be with the miscreant lawyer Lefroy (McAvoy).
It turns into something of an Elizabeth story, Austen becoming like the titular queen, forever a virgin, married to the greater good of her art and sacrificing her heart in the process.
It's just dramatic and touching enough to make you care, but there's a lot of colourless landscape to move through to get there.