Before I start the review for Becoming Jane, let me just say that I adore Anne Hathaway in that all encompassing sort of adoration; I want to be her, date her, be her best friend, stylist, and work with her. However much I love her though, I got to be honest here. Becoming Jane was a good movie, and just that. Becoming Jane was a 2007 movie based on the life of the strong-minded writer Jane Austen.

It had a very strong cast, with Hathaway as Jane, James McAvoy (a Scottish actor) as Tom Lefroy, her love interest, and James Cromwell as her father. See, not only do I adore Anne Hathaway, but I adore Jane Austen, and throughout the whole movie I couldn’t help but question the authenticity of the story line. Did she really have these relationships? Did she really write Pride and Prejudice in London or was it in Hampshire? Perhaps my love for Austen and her novels slightly tainted this movie for me, but on the other hand, it was sort of fun to picture Hathaway as Austen, sitting at her desk and writing out “it is a truth universally acknowledged.” Overall, the movie wasn’t bad. The costumes were succulent and beautiful, the music, albeit a bit cheesy, fit the movie well, and the acting was, for the most part, pretty strong. After doing some research on the movie and Austen, I found that the most critical response to this movie was the fact that they used an American actress to play a British woman. I didn’t have a problem with her accent; I did think that Hathaway was a bit American in her overall sense. For example, if you have seen the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, the women are all very light and airy all the while being smart and strong. Hathaway was a bit too heavy in screen presence (and no, I don’t mean weight).
The one part of the movie I wish there would have been more of was the scenes that illustrated the intimate relationship between Jane and her sister, Cassandra, her brother, Henry, and her father. According to biographers, Austen had an extremely close relationship with these people in her life, and I wish that this was shown more in the movie. The few scenes with Jane and Cassandra are some of the sweetest in the movie, and as someone who is very close to her sister, I felt like I was a kindred spirit with Jane. I was very confused, however, with Jane’s attraction to Tom Lefroy, a lawyer she falls for (who is supposedly the inspiration for Darcy in Pride and Prejudice). Lefroy reminded me more of Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, the entire movie; he didn’t have Darcy’s quiet charm, or care and love for Elizabeth Bennett (though, this movie does make it clear that Elizabeth Bennett is very much Jane Austen and Cassandra was Jane Bennett).
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I did. I happen to love biographical movies because they open your mind to question the person’s life and go research it and read about it on your own. That’s exactly what this movie did to me; today I’m going to the library to get a biography on Austen. I think this is a great movie for a rainy day. Word to the wise: because some of the actors are pretending to be British, their words come out very softly, and I had to use subtitles. There’s no way I’d understand a thing without them. Am I glad I netflixed this? Absolutely. Would I see it again? Maybe in a year, or after I read her biography. Do I recommend it? I think any woman will feel a connection to this movie; I think it’s a sweet story about a strong woman. And, if you happen to love Austen’s work, it is fun to see Austen on screen get inspiration for her novels and watch them sort of come to life.

Olivia March Dreizen, © 2008 butyoudontlooksick.com