DVD REVIEW: Bright Star

Plot summary for Bright Star from comingsoon.net:

London, 1818 – a secret love affair begins between 23-year-old English poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. This unlikely pair started at odds; he thinking her a stylish minx, she unimpressed by literature in general. But when Keats's younger brother falls ill John and Fanny are drawn together. Keats, touched by Fanny's efforts to help care for his brother, agrees to teach her poetry. By the time Fanny's alarmed mother (Kerry Fox) and Keats's best friend Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider) realize their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept into powerful new sensations: "I have the feeling as if I were dissolving," Keats wrote to her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. Only Keats's own fatal illness proved insurmountable.

With Bright Star, director Jane Campion goes back to the period genre, continuing where she left off with The Piano and The Portrait of a Lady. I have to be honest, this type of film isn't usually my favorite. I did enjoy Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice, but typically period films aren't my cup of tea. So it came as a bit of a surprise that I really enjoyed Bright Star, even more so than Kinsey.

Bright Star is grounded by two captivating performances from the romantic leads, Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne and Ben Whishaw as poet John Keats. A romance needs its two lovers to be convincing, and this film delivers a lovely arc of a relationship, moving from mutual disinterest to coursing passion. Fanny's strength of character and independent notions make her the perfect match for the edge-of-society Keats. And a relationship like theirs can only end in tragedy.

One would think that making a movie about a poet wouldn't be the easiest thing to do, as the composition of poetry can be a pretty boring process. Luckily, Campion avoids training her camera on a blank piece of paper or watching Keats frantically scribble verse. Instead, Keat's profession serves the film. His poetry comes out fresh and proud, signifying his dedication to his work through adversity. Or it comes out in halting stammers, when he becomes smitten with Fanny at a dinner party. Campion makes the art of poetry lifelike, when it could so easily become an eye-rolling practice of Poetry 101.

Bright Star also features a wonderful supporting performance from Paul Schneider, from NBC's Parks and Recreation, as Charles Brown, Keat's close friend. Brown brings that needed dose of reality to a period film, showing that people in the Victorian age did act rudely, goof off, and literally jump around like apes.

And finally, I have to show appreciation to any film that features oodles of visual splendor. Gorgeous imagery permeates the entirety of Bright Star. Every frame is perfectly orchestrated. Really just wonderful to look at.

Wade: 4.5/5 stars

Kinsey: 3/5 stars