Review of Bright Star (2009) by Damion R — 20 Feb 2010

When "Bright Star" first came out, there was much awards talk surrounding the story of Fanny Brawne's three-year courtship to poet John Keats. Many suspected that the young Abbie Cornish would almost undoubtedly get an Oscar nomination for her portral of Fannie while the rest of this film, directed by Oscar-nominee herself Jane Campion, was exactly what generates high praise at the Oscars by simply being a romantic period piece.

Alas, this suspected outcome was not to see the light of day....and now that I have seen the film, I understand why.

Just like everything else Campion has directed, the film was rendered utterly and dreadfully boring.

The performances are strong, don't get me wrong, but something happend (or doesn't, for that matter) between these strong performances and the final product that ultimately, you could not care less about any character in the film. For a movie that is supposed to be a love story involving one of the world's greatest romantic poets, you feel absolutely nothing at all between the two main characters, despite the drama and crying and melancholy brought about by death. Under Campion's writing and direction, the story unfolds in such a choppy, misaligned manner that you never for one moment feel the breadth of love between Keats and Browne and all you want to do is end the suffering...the suffering you are feeling by having to watch this film.

Thus, strong performances by both Cornish and Ben Whishaw as Keats are wasted in a film that ultimately leaves you as lifeless as Keats on his deathbed. Beisdes a surprisingly strong performance by Paul Schneider as Charles Brown, who is now best known or his role on the sitcom "Parks and Recreation," the best part of the film other than it's Oscar-nominated costumes is truly the reciting of a Keats poem while the credits role, as not only is it a beautiful poem, but you are delighted that the film will soon be coming to a long overdue end.