Bright Star

Director: Jane Campion
Writer: Jane Campion
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Wishaw
Release Date: September 18, 2009
Length: 1 hour 59 minutes

In 1818 London, a man who would eventually become one of the greatest poets of all time slowly fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Fanny Braune. This relationship continued for three years before John Keat’s untimely death at the age of 25. This exquisite true story is about the beautiful, but short romance shared between an artist in his youth and his muse. The title of the film is the name of one of Keats’s poems written about their love affair. Written and directed by Jane Campion (The Piano), Bright Star is a more realistic version of what the rare romance was in a time when love was not a luxury many people had.  The film stars the beautiful Australian actress, Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss) and the notable British actor, Ben Wishaw as the two star-crossed lovers. Abbie Cornish is slowly working her way up the A-list of actors with her outstanding performances in previous films. It seems as though she is able to capture any accent, somewhat like Meryl Streep. A noteworthy performance to mention was from American actor, Paul Schneider as John’s close friend Mr. Brown, who was a struggling poet. I have only ever seen Schneider in American comedies, so it was quite refreshing to see him in this fairly dramatic role, with a pretty thick Scottish accent. The character this film surrounds, Mr. John Keats himself, was done with an incredible performance from Ben Wishaw, whom you could clearly tell put in a thorough effort in studying Keats’s character. Aside from the remarkable cast, the true star of the film was the set director. I usually don’t mention technical details like this, but every scene could have been framed in a portrait. The use of colours and materials looked absolutely gorgeous. It was if an artist had painted each scene. There is a certain commonly used word that fits perfectly for this film. The word is beautiful. When film can capture love in such a way, in which the audience feels deeply for these characters and when we feel sadness when these characters are apart, and happiness when they’re together, that is a type of convincing love that is beautiful. When members of an audience can feel what these characters are feeling, that is when a film is most convincing. I will admit, I have a soft spot for these kinds of movies and I seem to enjoy them almost 100% of the time. The reason I enjoy films like Bright Star and Becoming Jane (2007 film about Jane Austen’s romance) so much more then regular romance movies is because the love is shown to be incredibly stronger in this particular time period. I believe this because these people who were so incredibly in love with each other, didn’t have any diversions or distractions and rarely interacted with other people. When something as rare as falling in love with someone occurs, these people grabbed on to it with all their strength because at that time, there wasn’t anything as exciting as love. Abbie Cornish and Ben Wishaw share a remarkable chemistry that only heightens the strength of the already heart-wrenching script. This is a timeless story that is made with a modern touch from the incredible team, behind this project. Jane Campion has put together a simply lovely film, which anyone in the world can feel for.