What does it tell you about me when I say that Keats is my favorite poet? That I am a pretentious prick who still reads poetry? Maybe. That I have taken and passed High School lit classes? Maybe. Mostly, however, it should tell you that I am a sucker for romantic longings unfulfilled. Jane Campion's “Bright Star” captures those longings by turning Keats into a character; his poems a Greek chorus to the romance that inspired him.
In “Bright Star” Abby Cornish stars as Fanny Brawne, a 19-year-old with a love of stitching unusual frocks and no interest in poetry. No interest until she meets John Keats, (Ben Whishaw) a seemingly failed poet who, though loved by his fellow artists, has not sold enough poetry to pay the bills.
Keats is Fanny's neighbor, living on the estate of his friend and patron Charles Browne (Paul Schneider). The affair between Fanny and Keats is one of those forbidden 18th century romances where the girl is only allowed to marry a man of means and he is but a poor poet. We've seen this story a few times. It's a little different however with the wondrous words of Keats accompanying it.
Jane Campion directs “Bright Star” with a stark eye, muted colors and quiet tones. It's an approach that brings the restrictions of the day to the forefront, as if the very environment itself was holding back young love. There are moments of brief color and life such as a scene where Fanny lies in a field of purple flowers or one in which she and her much younger sister have filled their bedroom with butterflies, but these scenes are brief, much like the happy moments of Fanny and Keats' love affair.
The educated are aware that Keats died young, only 25. He and Fanny Brawne, his real life neighbor, love and muse, had only two years together before tuberculosis forced Keats to abandon England for the warmer climes of Naples. The film plays a pair of moving scenes around Keats' illness and his departure. One has Keats performing his poem “Bright Star,” written about Fanny Brawne, as the two lay together for the last time.
The other scene is their very brief goodbye, where Keats boards a carriage as Fanny turns her back and walks away without a word. It's a modest, brief scene but it captures the immature romance in unexpected ways. Brawne was only 19 when she met and fell in love with Keats and Abby Cornish well captures the dramatic circumstances of a love that young.
Keep an eye on Paul Schneider as John Browne as early on he will have many in the audience clawing their eyes wishing he would go away. His redemption in the end comes in the form of a moving, angry confession that is arguably the finest moment in a film filled with great moments.
“Bright Star” is not a perfect film, there are moments when Fanny's immaturity is overstated to an irritating degree and Whishaw can tend too far toward cheap melodrama in a few scenes, but for the most part Director Jane Campion keeps everything on track.
Focusing the story on Fanny and not Keats frees Director Campion from having to film his words and inspiration and instead she gets to feature them. Stay for the credits and a full reading of Keats' “Ode to a Nightingale.” That alone is nearly enough to recommend “Bright Star.”
BYLINE:
Sean Patrick Kernan is a film critic. Check him out at: http://www.myspace.com/number1ramjamfan.
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