Review of Bright Star (2009) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

Written and directed by Jane Campion, this is a very classy and old fashioned period drama set in the time of the great romantic poets. It sits comfortably alongside Campion's other period pieces like The Piano (1993) and The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and it has a good cast and it's good to see someone make a film like this now.

Set in Hampstead in 1818, this follows a burgeoning romance that happened between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and seamstress Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). Fanny met Keats through a family her mother (Kerry Fox) knew, as Keats shared the house with them, along with his best friend, the boorish friend and writing associate Charles Brown (Paul Schneider).

Keats and Fanny begin a friendship, which evolves into a relationship, while Fanny is a lot more flirtatious, Keats is more sexually celibate, but Keats maintains a good friendship with the Brawne family, which also include Fanny's younger brother Samuel (Thomas Sangster) and younger sister Toots (Edie Martin), but after a while, Keats' health starts to fail, which puts a strain on their relationship.

It's a touching romance, well filmed with a delicate nature and even doing justice to Keats' poetry. While Cornish gives a strong, romantic performance as Fanny, Whishaw is a revelation as Keats, getting under the skin of how a poet works and giving him a near-eccentric personality.