Becoming Jane has been released in Australia, and the media is right on top of it. The Courier-Mail has the perhaps inevitable article about why anyone would want to make an Austen biopic.

Austen wrote beautifully romantic stories but away from the novels she appeared to be more of a novice, dying, aged 41, never having married.

Not that she didn’t have a chance. Some people believe she received three proposals.

Three? We can think of one definite, and one possible (her sister-in-law’s gormless brother). Someone remind us of the third. (One hopes they don’t mean Tom Lefroy!)

But let’s not get bogged on details. Becoming Jane is a true Austen story, even if it’s one that was never written by the woman who sought anonymity.

That depends on your definition of “a true Austen story!”

The Courier-Mail also has an interview with Anne Hathaway in which she manages not to put her foot in her mouth about Jane Austen. The wire services have been duly alerted.

“I love Jane Austen,” she says. “The first thing that frightened me about doing the film was that I had to do an accent. The second was that it was a period film, and third was that I was playing one of the most beloved women in British history.

“There were a lot of things outside of my comfort zone and I loved every second of making it. It’s a look at Jane Austen’s early life and the influences that made her write. I think it’s safe to say that she was a genius in the way she observed the society around her, and the way she knew about relationships.”

Stay safe, dearie. Stay safe.

The Sydney Morning Herald reviews the film, and, well…

It’s all very spirited without getting anywhere near the spirit of Austen herself - at least as we know her from her work. The harsh reality of the affair’s ending is cushioned to create a soft landing and, all in all, it’s as if My Brilliant Career had been refashioned as a Regency romance by Georgette Heyer.

The greatness of Austen’s novels lay in the angle through which she viewed the world. Everything was reflected through her wit - which might be why she avoided tragedy. Wit into tragedy just doesn’t go.

And wit, we’re led to believe, was the key to her feelings for Lefroy. They used the same language and spoke at the same speed - something the film captures while somehow failing to make it sexy. The novels are erotic because they work like psychological strip-teases. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet unpeel their inhibitions layer by layer until at last they feel able to tell one another the truth.

There’s also a delicate comedy in the dance they do. Darcy is seduced because Elizabeth’s wit disarms him and because she’s braver than he is. Consequently, there’s an erotic sense of suspense in his slow-growing realisation of what exactly this means. It’s subtle stuff but that’s what Austen was about and it’s why we’re still reading her.

For all its attractions, Becoming Jane just doesn’t get it.