"Becoming Jane" (2007)

This is a biological portrait of Jane Austen before she was famous and her romance with young Irishman, Tom Lefroy.

What I found particularly interesting about this film was the manner in which it opened. Where the credits were appearing one would normally expect to hear some kind of music, but this was just completely silent which I thought was quite effective. In a way it brought about curiousity through a differently creative means. I haven’t seen this done very often so I liked it.

I wish I’d known more about Jane Austen before sitting down to watch this film as I probably would have enjoyed it more if I did. Well, that is to say, I did enjoy it, but…I would have had more understanding of the story. I haven’t really watched movies set in this era much, like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or ‘Jane Eyre’, and I wouldn’t really know a whole lot about this time period, (I don’t have the compelling interest) so I have no real frame of reference for comparison. I can just tell you that I enjoyed it.

There are actually quite a lot of big names in this movie. I didn’t realised when I first started watching it, because it doesn’t seem to be very well known! Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith, James Cromwell. I found Julie Walters quite amusing. I liked her character. Maggie Smith is just great in everything she does. I liked Anne Hathaway in this film. I found it a bit jarring iniitially just simply because this wasn’t a roll I was used to seeing her play, but once I got into the story I thought she was good. Of course James McAvoy was my favourite addition to the cast (but you guessed that). Initially, I didn’t care too much for the character he was playing, but I got the impression you weren’t really supposed to anyway. As the film went on and his character was developed, I liked him more. This is why I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had known more about Jane Austen before sitting down to this because I would have understood the characters more. Oh well. This film has definately made me want to find out more about her and the books she’s written.

If you like these kind of films, then I would recommend this. It’s a very nice film.

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