Movie review: "Becoming Jane"

[matrixrefugee]

Which I saw last night with my folks. Wow. WOW! ****** out of ***** (Yeah, I know that's six out of five stars, but it's that good!) The costuming, the music, the acting. Anne Hathaway simply *WAS* Jane Austen: she excellently captured our girl's poise and spunkiness. I could listen to her read Jane's writing for hours: she's really matured as an actress and a presenter of the written word. She's really learned how to bring the written word to life and make it bloom for the ear.

I never knew that Jane Austen had such a tragic romance, and in some ways, I see in it a dim reflection or at least a paralell of my own botched engagement. So, in seeing this film, I think it's helped me to heal even more, especially in light of how messed-up I was earlier this summer. Can't wait for this to come out on DVD, so I can watch it and Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" when I hit another bump in the road like the last one.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Never could stand Jane Austen- I don't want to say, "too much talking", but there WAS: nobody ever seemed to DO anything, just talk! In fact, the only Jane Austen character I ever liked was Elizabeth Bennet's youngest sister Lydia (I think he name was), the one that ran off with the officer and basically said, "Well, blast this, I'm going to go off and do what I want and marry who I want, and if any of you have a problem with it, shove it!" THAT, I could stand behind...

~Ruby

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

... wasn't Lydia bedded, and the guy who was going to get up and leave her there, ruining her reputation and leaving rumors about her being very slutty?

Someone had to PAY her husband to marry her. :\

[(Anonymous)]

I never remember her being all that upset about it- she was utterly, for the time, trampy, but I always got the impression that the rest of her family were the ones that had the major problem with it all. I just never found the rest of Austen's characters interesting or engaging– I'm just not much into romance or society-types, and maybe also because I was raised so culturally different from that whole mindset (I'm Anglo-Pakistani) I just couldn't give a darn about a bunch of pale people flitting around in bonnets and going to balls ;-D
~Ruby

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

I don't think she knew about it. Personally, I think it would be kind of insulting... that she was, in fact, a "booty call." As far as I know, he had plans to dump her and leave her.

Reminds me of that insult - "In order to get the dog to play with her as a little girl, we had to tie a pork chop around her neck."