I’ve been home from the theater for over two hours, but my heart is still a big puddle of mush and I confess there’s a little bit of extra palpitation taking place, too. “Becoming Jane” is a movie you absolutely must see, especially if you are a Jane Austen fan.
Anne Hathaway stars as Jane Austen, the youngest daughter of an impoverished clergyman. She aspires to write, and spends long hours poring over her pen and paper, composing fanciful and ironic poems and stories. Her sister has announced her engagement, and to celebrate, Jane reads a poem she wrote to honor the occasion, to find that it put one of her listeners to sleep.
His name is Tom Lefroy, (James McAvoy) and he’s down from London for a visit with his country relatives. His bad conduct while studying law has lead his uncle to insist that he take this vacation, in the hopes that it will teach him something. It’s teaching him that the country is nothing like London, and that he just may have to tolerate some less exalted company than he would like.
Jane overhears his opinion on her reading, and it infuriates her to the point that she can’t speak civilly to him. As they continue to interact, their relationship goes from hatred, to fascination, and then to love.
Tom is too poor to get married without the support of his uncle, and Jane goes with him to visit the uncle, hoping to secure his good opinion. But the uncle receives a letter from an anonymous source, saying that Jane is only after Tom’s inheritance, and he refuses to give his blessing. Tom and Jane part ways, only to have one last chance a short time later.
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail, because I badly want you to go see the film for yourself. But rest assured – it’s extremely romantic, well acted, very clever, and you’ll cry your eyes out. It’s also mostly based on fact, although some liberties were taken to fill in gaps where information was missing — and I’ve no doubt that those liberties were pretty large.
The film does contain a brief glimpse of male nudity from the back, and some bawdy scenes in a bar. It’s nothing offensive, per se, but just to give you a heads up.
One thing I will interject – I spent the entire first fifteen minutes of the movie trying to place James McAvoy. I finally realized that he’s the actor who portrayed Mr. Tumnus in “Narnia.” Once I figured that out, I was good to go – so I’ll let you know beforehand so you won’t waste the first fifteen minutes like I did.
This film is rated PG. And did I mention, I loved it? As in, really loved it?
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