CarnivalAskew

Becoming Jane is a surprisingly charming film that manages to conscientiously adhere to the formula of love stories whilst still maintaining a degree of fiery autonomy that makes it more than the typical Romeo and Juliet clone. A tale of love found, lost, found, and lost again, it takes known facts about Jane Austen’s life and, with a bit of imaginative extrapolation, challenges the common perception of Jane Austen as an austere spinster who was obsessed with propriety.

The Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) of this movie is a fiery young woman who, despite the limitations placed on her gender during this period, has managed to maintain a degree of power over her own life. Intelligent, witty and with opinions that she’s not afraid to let people know about, she has so far managed to escape her mother’s well-intentioned desire to marry her off to the most eligible (read: rich) suitor around, Mr. Wisely (Laurence Fox).

When the wild and debaucherous Tom LeFroy (James McAvoy) is sent to stay with his rural cousins by a disapproving uncle, he and Jane immediately dislike each other. He thinks her writing is “accomplished” and nothing more; she thinks he’s a pompous ass who has airs about his own importance. Yet what starts off as hate slowly turns to affection and then love as the two challenge each other to grow beyond the situations in which they find themselves.

Circumstances, and a number of Jane’s family, friends, and neighbours contrive to keep Jane and LeFroy apart. The love story turns melodrama as Jane is proposed to by Mr. Wisely, is pressured into marrying him by her mother (Julie Walters) and his aunt, Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith), and suffers setbacks in her attempts to marry LeFroy.

The writers have made much of the Becoming Jane story up, but it does stick to the known facts about her life. This means that even before going into the cinema, we know that Jane Austen will be an unmarried woman at the end of her life – and so the relationship between her and LeFroy is doomed from the beginning. Yet the movie still manages to be engaging enough that it’s not hard to find yourself sitting there and hoping that the couple will somehow be able to defy history and end up living happily ever after.

There are a number of reasons why this film is as charming as it is, but, by and large, the cast is definitely its most impressive feature. Anne Hathaway has an energetic approach to playing Jane Austen that allows her to convey the intelligence and wit of a woman who is ahead of her times. James McAvoy, despite occasionally looking like he’s sucking on a lemon, is more than adequate when it comes to depicting the passion and energy of a roguish youth who has the weight of the world on his shoulders. And while it would be possible to go on and explain why each supporting character was well-cast, suffice to say that there’s no one who doesn’t present their character in the best (or worst, as the case may be) light.

There have been a lot of liberties taken with Jane Austen’s story, which may annoy people who know about her life or are fans of her writing – and the movie does lack the fast pace that most movie-goers may be used to, which could turn some more people off it – however, Becoming Jane is a largely witty and dramatic exploration of a period where sense and sensibility were the norm.