movie: Becoming Jane

[meganbmoore]

I have very little to say about this movie, based on a supposed romance of Jane Austen's that she had when she was young.  While I don't know a lot about Jane Austen's personal life, my understanding is that her relationship with Tom Lefroy was friendship, not romance.

Overall, the movie is very charming, but really not a lot else.  I've always liked Anne Hathaway, and she didn't disappoint.  A lot of the f-list has been sighing over James McAvoy for a while now.  While I don't quite get the big deal about him, he was very charming in the movie.  Lefroy himself was...considerably less so.  But then, as Jane never married, you knew going in that it had to end badly for the lovers in some fashion, and he had to live and become successful himself, so I guess they couldn't make him too great. 

Pretty enjoyable with great costumes and scenery, and there's a lot of fun "guess which Austen character this is" going on, but it's not much more than an enjoyable way to spend two hours.  And there are far, far worse ways to spend two hours.

ETA:  Have been educated on the matter of Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy.  Though it doesn't seem to reduce the number of liberties the movie took on that front.

Comments

[the_rck]

I got this movie from the library but only got about halfway through. It wasn't *bad*. I just couldn't get myself to pay attention. I paused it for something and never started it again.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup. There's nothing outstanding about it either way. It's fairly solid as you watch it, but I doubt I'll remember much in a few months.

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

Her relationship with Tom Lefroy was romantic, though very innocently so. Unfortunately, they could never go further than dancing together because his family would never have allowed him to marry a woman of such modest means.

Jane later agreed to marry a man who would offer her security and, on his side, genuine affection. All that night, she couldn't sleep and in the morning gently told him she must break off the engagement.

Although it seems she did love Tom Lefroy, she characteristically refused to become a tragic spinster and instead decided to enjoy the freedom of single life.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah. I just remembered a lot of talk about how her relationship with Lefroy wasn't like that when the movie came out. In the movie, the relationship was less innocent, and did cross the bounds of propiety (though not as far as our modern minds immediately leap when that's said.) It sounds like, historically, it was never allowed to progress beyond puppy love.

The movie makes it her choice to not be with him (for very good reasons, though I suspect the historical Lefroy wouldn't have allowed them to be in the position they were in) and she effectively says "screw reality...I'm going to write stories where everyone gets exactly what they want, even if they suffer a bit first."

For my part, I actually found the small bits of her relationship with Woosley(the other man) more interesting, and, of the 2 men, sympathized more with him.

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

As far as I was concerned the best thing to come out of that movie was glvalentine's take on it:

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Does a pretty good job of showing why I didn't care for Lefroy and was myeh about the romance.

(Though, not to negate any criticisms, it should be set somewhere around 1790~, which is a decent bit pre-Regency.)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

My god, that video is a thing of beauty.

I refused to watch this film because all the trailers told me was that Jane Austen totally needed a man to dump her before she could actually write. Because as we all know she never wrote a word before him.

Plus while I find him okay elsewhere James McAvoy looked vaguely frog like in the trailers. Not sure why, though.

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I haven't seen it. I get very protective of my favourite female author and no writer was ever more enthusiastically engaged in reality than her. I have a book of her letters and her letters to her niece are proof that she loved her life as it was.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

"Froglike" is a pretty decent description.

The movie works best if you pretend it's a kdrama and completely deactivate your brain before watching.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'll be completely honest and say that if I hadn't deliberately disengaged my brain before watching, I'd probably be nitpicking all over the place.

Disengaged brain: PRETTY DRESSES!
Engaged brain: WAIT! That doesn't belong in the 1790s! It belongs...somewhere within 20 or so years of it, but...*too lazy to look to see exactly when P&P was written*

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Sorry for butting in, but I'm sure you'll know the answer to my question. Didn't someone she was interested in die unexpectedly? I thought it was Lefroy, but I could be making that up. Indeed, I could be making the whole thing up. Thanks for taking over for my poor befuddled brain and clarifying.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

....man. I have the feeling I would have made it five minutes into the movie and then chucked it.

The fast recap is a thing of beauty. Painful beauty.

[muses-circle.livejournal.com]

I never had any interest in seeing this movie, simply because Hollywood would totally muck it up. Also, never been a huge James McAvoy fan.

That YouTube vid is a great yet painful recap. Nice to see my favorite author feel like she has to know the love of a man to be able to feel whole enough to write. *snerk*

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

Her sister Cassandra fell in love with Thomas Fowle, a former student of her father. They became engaged, but he needed more money in order to marry and became a chaplain on a military expedition. He died of yellow fever. He had left money to Cassandra in his will, not a vast amount, but enough for her to live comfortably.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Thank you for filling me in. :-)