Based on a handful of vague references in Jane Austen's letters, this movie concocts a great heartbreaking romance in Austen's early life, a romance that would inspire her novels. In essence, the movie is a Jane Austen novel with Austen herself as the protagonist.
The problem is that it isn't a very good Austen novel. All of Austen's favorite standard characters are on hand -- the young clergyman who serves as comic relief, the formidable old dowager, the dithering parents who long to see their daughter married off, the decent but dull fellow our heroine is expected to marry, the enticing man of bad reputation whom she secretly prefers -- but they're present in pale versions that feel like fifth-generation photocopies of Austen's originals.
If the very fine 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice weren't still relatively fresh in our minds, Becoming Jane might not seem so awful, but so many of these actors feel like poor-man's versions of the actors who played similar roles in that film. James Cromwell and Julie Walters take over for P&P's Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn as the parents, Maggie Smith is in for Judi Dench as the grumpy old dame, and so on.
None of them give bad performances, really; they're just a bit flat compared to the earlier versions. They aren't helped by a script (by Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams) that crawls like molasses and stumbles through more "oh, I thought it was over" false endings than the last Lord of the Rings movie.
If there is any reason to see the movie, it's the central couple -- Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy as Jane Austen and Thomas Lefroy. They're a very likable couple, and they actually manage to generate some heat and passion, despite the movie's lack of energy. They've both done superb work in other movies, and in the long run, this one will just be an unfortunate footnote on their resumes.
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