one of my absolute favorites!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I give this film a 7 our of ten with an important caveat-it is far more inaccurate historically than any decent historical film should be. I am not talking about the small kind of details than many historically oriented people might complain about... I'm talking about the major details such as the focus on reforming the shilling, which is made to look like a major accomplishment of Jane's even though it did not occur at all in her very very short reign. Most of this film is completely fabricated, from the depiction of her personality to the relationship with her husband. The only thing that is true is that she was used as a pawn by people around her who wanted a protestant queen instead of Catholic queen....and their misuse of her in this plot cost her her life. In all likelihood, so much of the biographical details are fictionalized because we have so little information on what she was really like.The reason I give the film so high a rating is that its a total guilty pleasure for someone who likes a a bit of historical drama. Helena B-Carter is great as a a Jane that is willful, but both strong and vulnerable at the same time She's a pleasure to watch in this, even if we have little information to suggest how Jane herself was. I also like the complexity of the relationship with her husband, even though by most historic accounts, he was a drunken louse and there's no reason to believe they won each others hearts as they did in the film. In short, this is a reasonably well written and presented historical drama, even if not a great representation of Jane and her life.

Trevor Nunn directed this true historical account of the circumstances that led to the succession of the royal throne of England in the 16th century. Helena Bonham Carter plays 15-year old Lady Jane Grey, who is pushed into the throne by royal ministers after the death of King Henry the VIII. His son Edward is dying, and the reform-minded ministers do not want the Princess Mary as queen, because she is catholic, and Jane is protestant. Jane is forced to marry Guilford Dudley(played by Cary Elwes) to be Queen, but they do eventually fall in love, and decide to institute further reforms, which alarms the ministers, and seals their fates, as Princess Mary is leading her forces to usurp Jane... Fine cast and production in this handsomely mounted and interesting film. Certain historical facts may have been tweaked, and it is a bit long, but overall it works, with a moving ending.

I can't decide if I was more disappointed in the acting, the casting, the script, or the directing. Let's begin with the audio... much of the whispered dialogue is way too soft to be understood, making it difficult to understand and appreciate... this happened time and time again. The plot... for someone knowing very little about the history, there was insufficient development to make it clearly understood how Lady Jane became queen. Character development... there was very little; there seemed to be a severe lack of depth in defining the characters' personalities and not surprisingly a great lack of ability on the part of the actors to bring out anything but the most superficial qualities of their characters. The acting seemed contrived (example is the scene when Jane is being spanked... the crying is so fake). The directing/production... it seems as if nearly every scene ends without a climax... the pauses beteween dialogue exchanges are awkward; the scenes seem to jump from one to the other without flow. The script is mundane, boring... an example would be the scene where Jane and her husband are breaking the glasses "it is done" over and over with no sense of build or progression or climax. Ah, the music... alternating between something of a 15th century feel and then 20th century romantic fluff. I can only say that I wish I had that 2 hours of my life back.

I had passed the copy of "Lady Jane" at the public library multiple times, each time mildly interested due to Cary Elwes being in it. Finally this week, I actually checked it out after noticing that Helena Bonham Carter (another fave) was in it as well. I never thought it would be this good.I wasn't familiar with the story of Jane Grey before watching the movie which was a good thing. I'm interested in the history of the English kings and queens, particularly Henry VIII and his children. Somewhere I missed the Nine Days Queen and like I said, that was a plus for the movie.Lady Jane (Helena Bonham Carter) is a young girl who embraced the new Protestant religion in a primarily Catholic world. She's put into an arranged marriage with the son of the Duke of Northumberland. Guilford (Cary Elwes) is shown to be a drunken womanizer, dug out of a whorehouse when he is informed of his upcoming wedding. Against all odds(but not too surprising, considering it is a movie) they fall in love. Then, their social climbing parents coerce the dying King Edward to change his will to place Jane as his successor. In that time, Jane and Guilford implement new laws and practices that the counselors are none to pleased with. As a result, the exiled Princess Mary is returned to London and Jane and Guilford are imprisoned for usurping the throne, and eventually executed.Helena Bonham Carter is brilliant in the title role. I haven't seen her act this young before and was pleased with what I saw. She had remarkable discipline as a mere 18 year old and great command of the character.Cary Elwes (always amazing) was very interesting to watch in this. He appears at first to be highly immature, lazy, and unmotivated, desiring nothing but alcohol, and sampling the pleasures of "a lady of the night." He is in truth, revealed to be highly passionate for his cause in reforming the world he lives in. Together, HBC and CE have fantastic chemistry and are a complete joy to watch.The entire cast is good. The majority of them are veteran RSC actors and a wonderful offset to the youthfulness of Helena and Cary.It was a great script, great actors, great music, and in general, it is highly unforgettable. I can watch it again and again.