A different way of telling a story

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

What's the least productive way to waste your time if you like period movies? Watching a Jane Austen movie. What's the worst thing you can do next to going through an excruciating series of chores? Watching Becoming Jane. This movie reflects exactly why Austen became the overrated author she is, the reason why all of her characters seldom have any difficulty leading their prosperous lives. Being in financial difficulty, her family endeavors to convince her to marry a wealthy gentleman called Mr. Wisley, although she falls in love with Tom, a humble, yet honest lawyer with a bad reputation. Jane is stuck between choosing a perfect and rich life, and true love, the movie keeps swinging between the two relationships, but Jane follows her heart and grows fond of the poor lawyer who could be a perfect match for her, but at the end, she abruptly chooses the rich guy she NEVER gave a damn about, save for her financial troubles, in poor words, she ruins the message of the entire movie, and her life, by turning it from "follow your heart" to "who cares about it, just get married with money". Quite an unforgettable life lesson, right? I'm pointing my finger to the abundant English teachers who praise Austen as an author, and a human being. Austen taught girls that life should be weighed solely on money before Disney even taught them that the only for a girl way to change a man's life is by making use of their only available asset, their sexuality. Austen doesn't go against the flow, she pretends to, but at the end of the day embraces the social norms without providing any effort to display any agency whatsoever. She's clearly a mockery compared to female authors who truly contributed to FEMINISM like Charlotte Brontë, and doesn't deserve any respect. Austen is the mother of silly rom-coms, and that's all there's to it. Boring, dull, predictable rom-com plot. I still don't get why she's widely known in the world, despite being one of the worst authors I have ever read, and the worst female author for sure.

I absolutely loved Anne Hathaway in this but then again I love all her films. I think she played Jane very well and captured the struggle between love, growing up, family expectations and independence. Jane Austen was far beyond her time and I'm glad that more people will get a chance to learn about her through Anne Hathaway who is so much like her. Only bad thing about the movie was the casting for the male lead. I did not like the actor that played Tom and saw no chemistry between them. I felt that he looked too young and made me root for the rich man instead of "true love". I would have even preferred the man who played Henry to be Jane's love interest since they had great chemistry. I would recommend for a Sunday of Netflix-ing but not as a favorite.

I remember seeing Pride and Prejudice many years ago, it is a beautiful film and I am told that the book is even more splendid. This film about the author behind that and other books in the genre is a very rich tale of love, class, nobles and the mob :)It takes place in the country and London, but mostly far away from anything, so the scenes are very vivid and full of color and natures brisk attitude. The acting is like taking them out of an old book and especially Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy do a splendid job, but the rest of the cast and crew have worked hard to make the personalities, with quirks, errors and lovely characteristics stand out.I was entertained, having read nothing of her works and knowing little about her other then the name, well I had nothing to cloud my impression.

This is an imagined semi-biographical story of Jane Austen. It's around 1795, and Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) is a rebellious young woman before her great works. She forms a combative relationship with rogue Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy) while her family wants a more aristocratic match in Mr. Wisley (Laurence Fox) and stability of money.It's very doubtful that this has much relationship to reality, but it's still a very good movie. Hathaway and McAvoy are great young actors, and they have magnetic chemistry. It's really an interesting way to create an Austen-like story by using her own life. And I do like the ending and the depressing tone no matter how little it has to do with her true life. We must allow for poetic license. I do wish for a faster start to the drama. Once it gets started, there are great performances such as Julie Walters as Jane's mother in addition to the two leads. I like to think of this as a Jane Austen novel that she never got to write herself.