Bright Star

Synopsis: A secret love affair between poet John Keats and Fanny Browne escalates but is shattered by his untimely illness.

Release Date: September 18, 2009     MPAA Rating: PG-13

Genre(s): Drama, Period Piece

Film Review

The ill-fated romance depicted in Bright Star may not reach overwhelming proportions in terms of romance, but it still delivers a conventional and heartwarming love affair. Between the under appreciated poet Keats, while living that is, and the eccentric fashionable girl next door Fanny, a honest and forbidden love blooms in this movie that will make you laugh, cry, and yearn for a simpler way of life where walking in the park or holding hands meant more than anything else. The movie itself plays like a poem on screen, filling you with deep emotion drawn from despair, heartache, love, comedy, respect, and most of all an undying connection between two people that no place, circumstance or person could tear apart.

It is unfortunate but this movie lacks any great cinematography. The film is represented well but it remains very small on the screen. There are few wide shots of the landscape and most of the shots focus on the individual in mediums or close-ups. It fails to either draw you further into the relationships of characters by filming them closely together in frame, or give you a sense of their surroundings on a larger scale. For a film meant to focus on two people and their relationship it could have benefited from more shots of the two of them in close quarters, even if their time alone was limited. This lack does not take away from the overall experience of watching the movie but it could have made it stronger.

Two people sitting on a couch may not scream chemistry in most films. In this movie the magnitude you feel between them is intoxicating. They are a classically easy pair where it all looks so simple and natural between them on screen you would believe they are the two people, Keats and Fanny, come to life.

Fanny Brawne may have been full of sarcasm and wit, with a good helping of caring and consideration, but what really makes her stand out from the crowd is her clothing. A woman of very little means she made her own clothes and styled them according to what she liked, not what was necessarily the fashion of the time. Every outfit she wears in the film is full of character. The high hats with ribbons and bows, mushroom collars of all proportions, lots and lots of pleats, a colorful candy-cane like dress, and bright colors unlike everyone around her give Fanny a style all her own. Her talent shines through the clothes she wears and they perfectly represent the individual she was in her own time.

Cast and Crew

• Director(s): Jane Campion
• Producer(s): Jane CampionAbbie Cornish (Fanny Brawne)
• Screenwriter(s): Thomas Sangster (Samuel Brawne)Ben Whishaw (John Keats)Paul Schneider (Charles Armitage Brown)
• Story: 
• Cast:  Alexandre de FranceschiGreig FraserJanet Patterson
• Editor(s): Janet Patterson
• Cinematographer: Mark Bradshaw
• Production Designer(s):
• Costume Designer: 
• Casting Director(s): 
• Music Score: 
• Music Performed By: 
• Country Of Origin: UKAustralia