Review by Diana Birchall

Since little is known about any romance Jane Austen may have had, it’s safe to speculate, and screenwriters Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams have crafted a fantasy in which the not-yet-great novelist nearly elopes with Tom Lefroy, a penniless Irishman given to pugilism and bawdry. Director Julian Jarrold has delivered an overlong film with an uncertain portrayal of its heroine at its superficial heart. Irritatingly, it’s peppered with quotes from Austen’s still unwritten novels improbably stuck in the mouths of her family members. Playing the young genius with a blend of bland insipidity and sophisticated lip gloss that will exasperate even the most tepid Janeite, Anne Hathaway lacks chemistry with the puckish, eyebrow-wiggling James McEvoy as her ill-matched lover.* This gives plenty of room for minor characters such as the impressive, eagle-browed James Cromwell as Rev. Austen and Julie Walters in a Mrs. Bennet-like turn as Mrs. Austen, to steal scenes. Maggie Smith has been rolled out to play the requisite fictional elderly dragon lady, and Anna Maxwell Martin as Jane’s sweet sister Cassandra is also noteworthy. The film is unfailingly pretty, despite a sense of hollow uncertainty that keeps us from being swept into involvement with its principal lady. Fortunately, as a saving grace it rises to a bittersweet, tear-inducing ending. This almost makes you forget the conceptual shakiness of a theme that indicates disappointment in love was the catalyst that made Jane Austen what she became.

*Personally I cannot separate him in my mind from the alarmingly creepy Faun he played in the Narnia movie, but he at least acted very well, while Hathaway has only two expressions, both uninteresting and not remotely indicative of Genius. The first expression says, “I am pretty, especially my dark eyes. There, they are exquisitely made up right now, and I will gaze at the camera deeply and soulfully for two full minutes, and you can have a nice look at them, lucky you.” The second expression says, “All right, you’ve seen how pretty my eyes are. Now I must do some acting.” She thereupon looks down, so the eyes are slightly concealed, and puckers her forehead a little in consternation. There’s a third one, actually, but it has to do with the artful application off camera of gobs of translucent lip gloss. It’s strongly related to the first expression, though.

(Regular AustenBlog readers will remember Diana Birchall’s report on the Becoming Jane script, which was quite positive. Of her changed opinion upon seeing the finished product, Diana tells us, “You may remember that I read the screenplay a year or so ago when it was by Kevin Hood alone, and thought it was extremely, impressively good. Now in the press notes I see that the screenplay is credited to Sarah Williams and Kevin Hood, and it is infinitely less good. Draw what inferences you will, but these things do happen on the way to the big screen.” –Ed.)