Review: Becoming Jane

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Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, James Cromwell. Written by Kevin Hood, Sarah Williams. Directed by Julian Jarrold. Rated PG. 112 minutes. Miramax

I recently rearranged my personal library and removed, among others, all of Jane Austen’s works from my shelves, placing them directly in storage.  Gone were Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma, all rightful classics but all really a variation on the same themes: a woman defies societal convention, battles with an ill-mannered suitor and risks real fortune, family and social standing to pursue personal happiness.  I suppose I had grown tired of the many fine, well-mounted, impeccably designed adaptations flooding PBS, BBC, AMC and the multiplex, and needed a reprieve, at least in my own living room.  The Austen renaissance, eternally en vogue and ripe for never-ending interpretation, has become—to me—just too, well, familiar.  

So I had a bit of trepidation before seeing Becoming Jane, the vivid new semi-autobiographical look at young Austen’s life and the forces that shaped those classics.   I had expected a somewhat witty romantic comedy, a bantering battle of the sexes with a young Jane defying tradition and all the rest.  What I did not expect is how passionate and alive Becoming Jane actually is, filled with romance and young idealism. 

Jane Austen here is a country girl from a modest family with big dreams to write “novels,” frowned upon by men as trivial.  She is the daughter of the town reverend (James Cromwell) and a practical, hardworking mother (Julie Walters), and already being courted by the nebbish Mr. Wisely, nephew of the wealthy village spinster Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith in top form, as always).  All future signs point in one direction.  Imagine her quandary at the arrival of brash and penniless Irishman and London law student Thomas LeFroy (James McAvoy), sent to stay with his country cousins after irking the will of his powerful benefactor uncle.  Against the will of all and their own judgement, they begin a funny, combative courtship where the winning McAvoy recommends Tom Jones to Jane as a manual for life.  Soon the romantic and social complications pile up.

As directed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots), this is a gritty story of a young girl from a poor family in late 18^th century England, who fights every corner of her world—family, community, suitors—to find her own way in a life with limited options: marry rich and be miserable; marry poor, or maybe not at all, and live a life of digging your own potatoes, as Jane’s exasperated mother explains in a powerful scene.  And marrying poor meant jeopardizing the future of your entire family if they happened to be without means.  For a man in similar circumstances, bound to family purse strings or without fortune himself, it was no less precarious. 

Hathaway is a delightfully modern Jane and has matured into an actress of uncommon grace.  Sporting a convincing British accent and obviously enjoying herself, she makes merry of the courtship with McAvoy.  But she also gets the melancholy moments just right as well, so expressive in many reaction shots where she holds the camera, contemplating the implications of decisions leveled against her.  She has much passion in her portrait of the birth of an artist as well.  She plays many things here—dutiful, yet challenging daughter to working-class parents; ingenue to local suitors and a young woman falling in first love.  Watch how enraptured the actress is after her Jane experiences a first kiss.  Then watch her confidence holding the screen with forthright questioning of Smith’s Lady Gresham.   

Becoming Jane works so well works because it is so emotionally involving, and this is largely because Hathaway and McAvoy run comedic and romantic rings around each other and so obviously connect onscreen as actors that we can’t help but wait for their next scene together.  Throughout, McAvoy’s sky blue eyes and Hathaway’s deep brown ones mutually gaze in arresting close-ups, while a key moment late in the film produces separation anxiety that is palpable.  

It should be noted that Eigil Bryld’s cinematography is ravishing, as to be expected, perfectly capturing the countryside but also the dark quarters of the Austen home, and there are memorable shots here, carefully composed, set in an enchanted forest, a striking long-shot on a beach and one sad moment of Jane standing alone and still at the end of the path leading to her home.  

While Becoming Jane may work for Austen enthusiasts able to connect the dots and witness the obvious influences that informed her masterworks, it may work better as a drama for those knowing little about her later life.  There is much tension as to the outcome of the love story.  The characters want it, the actors want it and so do we. But their world did not.  The final scene is a heartbreaker. 

While Becoming Jane may ultimately qualify as an enjoyable lark, its feet—like its appealing heroine’s—remain firmly planted.  And Hathaway soars in a performance worthy of an Oscar nod.   Don’t miss her.  

- Lee Shoquist