Becoming Jane

In the past two years, Jane Austen’s everlasting popularity seems to have reached astronomical heights. Spurred by 2005’s surprise hit adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Austen seems to be everywhere. Her books remain very popular and a slew of Austen and Austen-related adaptations are being thrown at us left and right. In addition to the already-existing BRIDGET JONES novels and films, the film version of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB is about to hit theatres, and the complete Jane Austen collection is about to air on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre. This brings us to BECOMING JANE, the supposedly true story that explains Austen’s beginnings and her sources for inspiration. It may hold the record for shortest time span between a film and its remake; it is nothing more than a bleak following of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE’S pattern, with none of the thematic or visual joy that made its chief influence such a delight.

Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) is a would-be writer with little experience of the world. She longs for greatness, though she is stuck in her small country home with her loving family, giving her only a small margin for opportunity. From the city comes the strapping and daring Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), a man whose free spirit, worldly-wise attitude and (obviously) charming good looks, Jane is finally able to find inspiration, with a bit of forbidden love thrown into the mix as well. With class pressures pushing down on them from all angles, most notably Jane’s parents and suitor, Jane and Tom begin to realize that they may not get the carefree romance they dream of. And from this comes the main point of the film; to truly capture the spirit of love, you must have both loved and lost.

The film takes several liberties with Austen’s life to make it more romantic and shallowly relatable to “Pride and Prejudice.” While the work itself is definitely autobiographical to a point, BECOMING JANE makes it seem like Austen wrote the novel almost verbatim to her own life, changing the names of the characters and places to protect the family and so forth. The film’s look is highly reminiscent of the 2005 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, from the grubby surroundings right down to the cast; young starlet (who both owe their fame to Disney) as the headstrong female, well-known character actress as the fidgety mother, highly respected screen legend as the stuffy definition of the upper classes and the American masquerading as the detached yet lovable British father. The film takes what was likely a minor footnote in Austen’s life and embellishes it to the breaking point. While it does provide a little insight into Austen herself, the forced connections between the film and “Pride and Prejudice” are innumerable, and one wishes the writers could have thought of something a bit more subtle.

As Austen, Hathaway acquits herself quite nicely, though her charm and natural talent for breezy comedy and lighthearted wit (so evident in many of Austen’s heroines) is sadly underused. Instead, Austen is a solemn, grim character whose happiness is only fleeting; the heavy handed nature of the film and its direction limit moments of comedy to a few sequences early on. The only saving grace of the film in its second half is Hathaway’s amiable chemistry with McAvoy. This chemistry is none more apparent during a drawn-out ballroom sequence, where the sudden reveal of McAvoy saves the scene from becoming yawn-inducingly dreary. It’s a rare moment of brilliance in a film that otherwise packs few surprises.

If the filmmakers were so ready to take such liberties with Austen’s life, it would have been far better to treat her life as if it were one of her novels; where an unshakable sense of hope and joy pervades throughout even the most serious of times. Instead, we are given a trifle that attempts to cash in on Austenmania while becoming tiresomely serious to establish itself as “different.” A worthy effort from Hathaway and the rest of the cast cannot save the mistakes made in other departments. Those looking for insight into the life of one of the English language’s greatest writers will be extremely disappointed when they find nothing more than a mirthless rehash of her works.

*1/2