That’s not to say you have to be an Austen fan to enjoy this story; at its core, it’s about love found and then lost, and about how we can’t always follow out hearts, no matter how much we might want to.
A quick overview for those new to Austen: Englishwoman Jane Austen wrote six well-known novels, a few other pieces, and died a spinster in 1817 at the age of 41. She’s best known for the wonderful characters she created, and for her observations of society and the relationships between men and women. Most of her novels have been adapted for film or television, including the Ang Lee-directed Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, the BBC’s wonderful production of Pride and Prejudice, most notable for a dripping wet Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy to Jennifer Ehle’s Elizabeth Bennet, and a beautiful 1995 version of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds magnificent as Capt. Wentworth to Amanda Root’s Anne Elliot.
Becoming Jane explores a key question about Austen: How could a woman who never married write so knowingly of desire and love? In doing so, it delves into a somewhat mysterious incident in Jane’s life, revealed through her letters to her elder sister Cassandra, who was away from home at the time.
When Jane was twenty or so, she met Tom Lefroy, an Irishman visiting family in the area of Steventon, where Jane’s father was a minister. From Jane’s letters, we know she thought she and Tom might marry. But, neither had money enough, and he ended up marrying an Irish heiress.
Becoming Jane is the story of Jane and Tom’s brief time together. Anne Hathaway plays Jane, and she’s terrific. She’s Jane as an Austen fan would hope she’d be – bright, spirited, not always right, but always fully invested in what’s going on. It’s mentioned in the making-of featurette that Hathaway wrote about Austen while she was in college, and she says herself that she did a lot of reading (by and about Austen) in preparation for the role.
Tom is played by the equally good James McAvoy. Hathaway notes in the making of that she quickly realized she was in the presence of greatness, and who could disagree? If you’ve seen McAvoy in The Last King of Scotland, in Atonement, or even as the faun Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia, you’ve seen how well he embodies a role.
Tom is all that Jane should run from. In addition to having no money, he’s a rake – a drinker, fighter, lover, all to excess. He hears Jane read some of her work and is unimpressed; when she later calls him on it, he tells her she needs to know more of the world and recommends she read Tom Jones. Tom and Jane are a very unlikely pair, but the attraction is clear and believable. Reality separates them, but then they get a second chance, only to see again that it just won’t work.
From what I could tell, the part of Becoming Jane that’s truly fiction comes at the end, but the scene does give a nice sense of closure and fits the mood of the rest of the film, so I’ll forgive the filmmakers that.
The rest of the cast is excellent as well. Jane’s parents are played by James Cromwell and Julie Walters; the aunt of Jane’s would-be fiancé, Mr. Wisley, is played by Maggie Smith, and Tom’s uncle who kills their hope of happiness is played by Ian Richardson. They’re the best-known names in a cast that’s strong across the board.
Special features include the making of mentioned above, a number of deleted scenes (none of which adds very much), and an audio commentary with the director, Julian Jarrold, the writer, Kevin Hood, and the producer, Robert Bernstein. There’s also a “pop-up” option, where facts about Austen, English customs of the time, and the actors appear on-screen during the film. The pop-ups often seem out of place, although there are some interesting tidbits within them.
The main audio track is English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround; there’s also a Spanish track. Subtitles are in French and Spanish.
Becoming Jane is a lovely film. The story is sad, but any Austen fan will know that going in. The film is true to the spirit of Jane Austen, at least, to how many of her readers likely think of her, and it’s good to see her treated so well.