Bright Star - DVD review

Before reviewing, a confession. I'm not a natural poetry lover, this despite spending three years studying the vast canon of English Literature as an undergraduate. I have my likes, yes (Shelley, Plath, Dylan Thomas, since you asked), but overall I am much more content with a good novel or play than iambic pentameter. So that was my first prejudice against this movie of the poet John Keats' doomed love affair with girl next door Fanny Brawne. That, and the fact that I generally believe films about writers lack the visual currency and excitement of movies about artists or musicians - writing is such an internal process, after all.

All this from a writer and voracious bibliophile. I did succomb to a viewing of Bright Star though, attracted by my adoration of director Jane Campion's The Pianoand beguiled by Filmknitter's rapturous reception of the movie last year. And I must say, I simply adored it. Filmed in Campion's typically sensuous style, the movie is replete with the same natural tropes and hallmarks of Keats' own work. It's hard not to imagine you couldn't reach through the screen to run your hands through a host of daffodils (to paraphrase another Romantic poet), or caress the main players as their touches linger upon one another and the screen. And just what main players they are! Ben Whishaw (Brideshead Revisited) is perfectly cast as the ailing Keats, his willowy frame and jutting cheek bones just right for an impoverished poet, and he recites Keats' workwith such gravitas and feeling that I found myself wanting to rewind the DVD and hear him all over again. However it's Abbie Cornish as Fanny who impresses the most; I'd never seen her in anything bar a supporting role in the travesty that was Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which to be fair I think only Cate Blanchett could have emerged from with any real dignity, so her starring role here was a revelation. Displaying wit, humour and depth with a quietly burgeoning sexuality, she is mesmirising as the muse to Keats' sonnet 'Bright Star'. Her breakdown upon hearing of her lover's premature death is heartrending and lacks none of the actorly pretension often seen in her antipodean peer Ms Kidman - put simply, she gives a performance which will be very hard for her to live up to, young actress that she is.

The fact of Keats' death at the tender age of 25, before he achieved his latter day fame, is of course a huge tearjerker - I boo hooed like a baby throughout the last half hour, knowing what was coming and so convinced by the actors - but in spite of this, their love for one another is so suffused with light, affection and gentle comedy that the film is as much a celebration of what was as what could have been. Anyone in love will watch moments shared between the lovers and know exactly what I mean. All of this, and there are still sideways glimpses at the class system of the 1800s, from the penury of the creative Keats who faces the stark choice between medical training in order to marry or being reliant on the kindness of patrons (emphasis on patronising), to the seduction of the maid by his wealthy friend Mr Brown - one grim scene in particular stayed with me; that of Mr Brown (played with an odd mixture of fallibility and crudity by Paul Schneider) wiping jam onto maid Abigail's apron. Eugh. I don't think I need to unpack that symbolism. And as one would expect from Campion, there issubtle commentary on the role of women knitted into the script which neatly parallels the lot of the poverty-stricken poet. Campion also does great stuff contrasting in- and outdoor locations to make parallels with her characters' mindsets, and the English countryside is shown off to great effect as she does so. The scene where Keats is lying atop a blossom-filled tree after searching for a nightingale (yes, you do get to hear the Ode!) is one such visual flourish.

Bright Star is that rare thing; a literary biopic which isn't so into venerating its subject - or frankly, up it's own arse - to lose sight of a beautiful story. Visual poetry (with some impressive millinery to boot).

Comments

[Lindsey Davis]

I must bow to your greater judgement, Lou!

[Lou]

I hate to say I told you so, but..!

[Ailsa]

I found I liked it a lot more than I was expecting to, as well - and I was also a tear-stricken wreck at the end, but without feeling like I'd been emotionally blackmailed, which I think shows how well handled it was!