Review of Bright Star (2009) by Edward W — 17 Mar 2010

This film has a feel much like that of the better Jane Austen adaptations. There is, of course, its nearly identical setting: Pre-Victorian 19th-century England, with the same tangles of family dynamics, social expectation, and voluminous clothing. It is also beautifully filmed, juxtaposing natural scenery with the sparely furnished interiors of homes rented by highborn classes fallen on hard times yet forced to keep up appearances. More important similarities, however, are reflected in the characters themselves and their various journeys of growth, understanding, and love. Even the one role which might easily have come off as merely adversarial ultimately proves more complex, discovering something of conscience and even a hint of pity.

Unlike Austen's classics, however, this tale is fated to end in heartbreak. Written and directed by Jane Campion, BRIGHT STAR dramatizes the last three years in the life of poet John Keats and speculates on his relationship with Fanny Brawne, for whom he wrote the poem from which the film takes it name. Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish in the leads build their characters slowly, so that we are not certain at first whether we will like either of them at all. Yet, with starts and stumbles, they develop a bond of such tenderness that only the hardest heart can fail to embrace their ultimate tragedy and grief. And somehow all this is managed without quite crossing the line into maudlin.

As the film ended and Keats words were heard at length over the closing credits, I found myself wanting to know better the poet's life and work. I suspect Campion herself would count that a success.