Another slushy girly film (Becoming Jane (DVD))

Member Name: linzeelou

Product:	Becoming Jane (DVD)
Date:	20/09/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: James McAvoy

Disadvantages: Story wasnt very exciting

Becoming Jane is a historical romance film that was released in 2007 and was inspired by the early life of author, Jane Austen. It is rated PG due to some minor sexual references and a small amount of violence and the film is 112 minutes long.

Plot
Becoming Jane follows the life of Jane Austen. She is the youngest daughter in a struggling family and is expected to marry for money but she doesn't love the man that has offered for her. Her elder sister is already engaged and Jane is the intelligent one who doesn't want to succumb to conformity. Jane is an avid writer and her friends and family often like to hear the most recent of her works.

Just when Jane thinks everything is going OK, Thomas Lefroy is sent to the countryside by his Uncle. Thomas is a law student and quite up himself and has the girls swooning around him all over the place, but it is Jane who catches his eye. After many steamy glances across crowded rooms, Jane and Tom realise that they are in love and want to be together. Real life and real problems get in the way though and with Jane's parents putting pressure on her to marry to save the family, strain is put on their secret relationship but will they have a happily ever after?

Cast
Anne Hathaway - Jane Austen
James McAvoy - Thomas Lefroy
Julie Walters - Mrs. Austen
James Cromwell - Mr. Austen
Maggie Smith - Lady Gresham
Joe Anderson - Henry Austen
Lucy Cohu - Eliza de Feuillide
Laurence Fox - Mr. Wisley

My Opinion
I really love period dramas so when this was on TV the other week, I got quite excited. I've never really liked Anne Hathaway so I was a bit worried that she wouldn't pull the role off too well...and I was right. While she had great chemistry with James McAvoy, the rest of her performance was quite flat and wooden. In other Jane Austen stories, people like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kiera Knightly have been cast as the leads and Anne Hathaway just didn't compare to the on screen presence that these two had.

James McAvoy on the other hand, was fantastic. To begin with, his character, Thomas Lefroy is extremely arrogant and up himself but then as he gets to know Jane better, he softens up a bit which made me like him a lot more. Lefroy oozes charm and when he tells Jane that her horizons need to be widened, he is very cheeky. I loved every single thing about his performance and at times I hated him, then in the next scene, he did something which left a huge smile on my face.

The rest of the cast, including Maggie Smith and Julie Walters were fantastic so it was really only Anne Hathaway that let this film down.

If you know of this story before watching the film, then the ending will be quite predictable. I didn't know anything about it though before watching the film so the ending was quite a surprise for me which was nice because we don't get that so often now. The plot is quite thin at times and can feel like it drags on a little bit but overall, it is an alright film. I wont be going out to buy this one but it was fine to watch on TV.

Summary: Just alright