GRADE: A - Young love can be fickle. The relationship between John Keats, the great 19th century Romantic poet, and his lover, Fanny Brawne, was no exception. In director Jane Campion’s period drama “Bright Star,” young love can also be beautiful, subtle and frustrating — much like love is in real life.
The film begins in Hampstead, London, where the relationship between John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) blossoms in fairly typical boy-meets-girl fashion. Keats is a dark and sullen poet, devoted to the written word and constant musing. Brawne loves to sew and lives to create high fashion. They do not understand each other’s passion and are often confused by their feelings toward one another.
But when Keats’ brother Tom dies, he and Brawne begin to spend more time with one another and a mutual understanding grows. Keats is adopted into the Brawne family, becoming close not only to Brawne, but also to her two younger siblings, Samuel and Margaret (Thomas Sangster and Edie Martin). Through these interactions, a softer side of Keats emerges. It’s an hour into the film before Keats and Brawne begin their relationship officially with a kiss, engulfed in a beautiful scene shot through water reeds and spring foliage.
There are, of course, foils to the relationship. Above all is Keats’ poverty and unreliable employment, making him unsuitable husband material — a fact that Brawne’s mother (Kerry Fox) points out to her on a regular basis. Keats has to travel in order to write, and it is this back-and-forth, together-and-apart aspect of the film that creates the most lush and heartbreaking scenes.
Brawne is an all-or-nothing kind of girl. With Keats, she blooms and thrives like the floral scenery used throughout the film. Without him, she is despondent and, at times, very dramatic. She abandons her sewing to devote her energy to loving or missing Keats, but comes back to it as an emotional outlet. These erratic emotions are played supremely by Cornish, who brings both realism and emotional depth to the character.
Keats, on the other hand, is both happy and troubled in love. Brawne brings out the romantic poet in him, but he has difficult relationships with women. Whishaw is everything the leading man should be: handsome, poetic and forgivable. Even when Keats must travel to continue his craft, he writes Brawne terribly romantic letters and always seems to return to her.
Keats’ closest friend and companion, Mr. Brown (Paul Schneider), brings unnecessary trouble to Keats and Brawne. He feels that love will only tie the poet down and prevent him from writing. The American-born Schneider plays the Irishman with the perfect amount of contempt and desperation. He is terribly unlikable for his treatment of Brawne, who he sees as just another flirty girl, yet admirable for his love of Keats.
Most viewers will go into the theater knowing about Keats’ untimely death at age 25. While this does cast a foreboding shadow over the entire picture, it also amplifies emotions in the scenes between Keats and Brawne.
Campion, who won a screenwriting Oscar for “The Piano,” begins the film at a slow pace but gives the viewer visual payoffs at every turn. The film’s intimate approach brings the viewer into close contact with the characters. There is no sex, nudity or overt physicality in the film. Instead, Campion uses thoughtful dialogue, Keats’ poetry, and strong visuals to create the tension and action in the film.
This film will lend itself well to fans of the Jane Austen period and the love story crowd, but it has a broader appeal to film lovers of all kinds. The pace of the film seems sluggish at times, but Campion and the actors deliver a romantic story anyone could fall in love with.
“Bright Star” opens Friday, Sept. 25.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
