This entry was posted on Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 3:22 pm and is filed under B, Drama, Movie Reviews, Romance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Julian Jarrold
Starring: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith, Joe Anderson, Laurence Fox, Anna Maxwell Martin
This 1800s period piece started out with the light, subtly humorous tone of a Jane Austen novel, which I’m sure was director, Julian Jarrold’s intention. Unfortunately, Anne Hathaway’s Jane comes off as slightly arrogant and quite judgmental, while her love interest, Mr. Lefroy, is first introduced as a jackass, but seems to magically and suddenly transform (I know, I know…this is common in Movieland). The result is that neither character is all that likable. In a romantic drama, this is a problem. This is a disappointment both from Hathaway (I loved The Devil Wears Prada) and Jarrold, whose first feature, Kinky Boots, was surprisingly appealing to me.
The story here, which is supposed to be biographical, but doesn’t really fit the facts, is about Jane, a beautiful woman in stifling Victorian society, who fights against the idea of marrying without love and the assumption that women have to marry at all. She meets a man (Wow, there’s a twist) and they want to marry, but seem to be prevented by the external factors of society.
Admittedly, this chick flick is not in my favorite genre, but I am quite capable of appreciating various kinds of films, but this one offered up little of interest and suffers in comparison with the other 1800s authoress romance from this years releases, Mrs. Potter. While not a bad movie, I really can’t think of any reason to see it, so unless you and your gal pal are hard up for an estrogen-based experience, I would pass on this one.
