The Greatest Trick

First, let me admit that I am not a fan of Jane Austen’s books. I admire her genius as a writer, and am fully prepared to admit that her stories, characters and social observations are witty and exceptionally well-crafted, but I’ve always found them a bit too squeaky clean. I much prefer the dark, passionate worlds of the Bronte sisters – Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are two of my all time favourite novels – as they are much more suited to my temperament.

By the same token, the various television and film adaptations of Jane Austen, such as the BBC’s seminal 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice and Ang Lee’s film of Sense and Sensibility, although brilliantly adapted, acted and directed, also leave me cold. I therefore approached Becoming Jane, the latest in the current vogue of films about writers, with some trepidation.

Which makes it all the more delightful to report that Becoming Jane is very good indeed. Witty and amusing, but also moving and melancholy, it is a must-see both for fans of Austen and for fans of romantic cinema in general.

The story covers the usual territory one expects in such films – Jane Austen has a passion for writing, and would love to be financial independent by selling her work, but she is also the daughter of an Anglican priest in financial dire straits. Her only hope is to marry into money, but she is determined to marry for love. She receives an offer from a rich suitor Mr Wisley, but feels nothing for him. However, after meeting the dashing Tom Lefroy, the nephew of harsh London judge Mr Langlois, an attraction begins to develop. Of course, at first she despises him, especially as he falls asleep in one of her readings, but he offers to “broaden her horizons” in the interests of helping her writing improve, and soon he starts to resemble Mr Darcy without the money.

Speaking of Mr Darcy, the various characters in the story end up inspiring characters from Austen’s best loved novels; Jane’s sister Cassandra is Jane Bennett, her mother and father are Mr and Mrs Bennett, Lady Gresham is Lady Catherine De-Burgh, Mr Wisley has hints of Colonel Brandon, and so on. Many events in the story end up inspiring events in the novels, and obviously that is part of the fun. How much licence has been taken with the facts, I do not know. Neither do I care.

When it was announced that Anne Hathaway, an American, was playing the part of Jane, several Austen purists were incensed. Why not Keira Knightly or Kate Winslet? Well, frankly Hathaway is every bit as good here as she was in The Devil Wears Prada, and her accent is fine. Many American actors can pull off British accents (Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’ Diary is a good recent example), and quite honestly Hathaway fits the part like a glove in both looks and performance.

Hathaway is well matched with James McAvoy’s Tom, and there is genuine chemistry between the two. McAvoy is rapidly becoming one of the best young British actors in the business, and after the double whammy of this and The Last King of Scotland, he really has become a name to look out for.

Elsewhere, Julie Walters does a fine job as Jane’s mother as does the always excellent James Cromwell playing Jane’s father. Maggie Smith is suitably odious as Lady Gresham, and Ian Richardson is equally odious as Judge Langlois. Anna Maxwell Martin strikes a suitably tragic note as Cassandra, and there is a smattering of memorable bit parts, including Joe Anderson as Henry Austen, Jane’s deaf/mute brother.

Director Julian Jarrod’s skilled framing of widescreen space and cinematographer Eigel Bryld’s great use of natural light make this worth catching on the big screen. The story is well paced, and Adrian Johnston contributes a fine music score. Kevin Hood and Sarah William’s screenplay does lurch from witty romantic comedy to melodrama at the halfway point, but the transition feels natural, especially given that although Austen was determined to give her characters happy endings, in real life that was not always the case. Austen’s novels deliberately avoided much of what was going on in the world at the time, such as the Napoleonic war, but this film does not, and it is this slight edginess that makes Becoming Jane unique.

In final analysis, as films about writers go, this doesn’t quite reach the dizzy heights of Finding Neverland, but it’s still a fascinating insight and enjoyable romantic wallow, regardless of how many facts may have been tweaked.

Simon Dillon, March 2007.