Becoming Jane

As a fan of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (both the book and the most recent adaptation into a movie), I held low key hopes for the fictionalized accounting of her life. Not that the preview was particularly astounding. But it did star the beautiful Anne Hathaway and up and coming James McAvoy who was quite accomplished in The Last King of Scotland. As I said the movie is a fictionalized accounting of Austen's life of which we know very little (or so I am told). The film follows the Shakespeare In Love formula by depicting events as being the real life motivation for characters and actions in her novels.

The problem is that this film doesn't make Jane Austen or her characters more interesting. If in fact her plots were just taken from her life and the characters she met then that takes away from Austen's talent and it makes a character like Elizabeth Bennet...well not creative at all. The script seems to adhere to the adage "write what you know" which I think should get the reaction from writers that "if you can't do, teach" gets from teachers. Outrage, pure and unadulterated outrage that what they do could be dismissed as merely something they can do because they have experienced it which if were true would mean anyone in the world could be a writer.

But beyond what the movie is saying about the real Jane Austen, the character in the movie is about as poorly developed as the information we have on the real Austen's life. We have no sense of why she writes, her relationship with her family is barely fleshed out and her motivation for falling for LeFroy (McAvoy) is a downright mystery. The film stumbles over itself trying to get to an end which can satisfy the requirement that of course Austen remained single for her short life. It may satisfy that requirement but it doesn't satisfy as an ending or a film.