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Ok, I get it. I’m a guy in his twenties who puts down the remote whenever he catches Commando on TV. What do I know about a period piece or romance films? Yes, Bright Star wasn’t number 1 on my must-see list, but a film that was directed by Jane Campion, nominated at the Cannes Film Festival, and one that gives me a chance to see more Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider, definitely piqued my interest. Wait… did I say “period piece” and “romance”?

Bright Star takes place in London 1818 and is the story of John Keats, played by Ben Whishaw (I’m Not There… he played Bob Dylan… wait, nevermind) and his three-year romance with Fanny Brawne, portrayed by Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss). As Keats spends his time daydreaming of Miss Brawne, the romance begins to take a toll not only on the relationship with Keats and his best friend/writing partner, Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), but their poetry as well. This sounds like a very good plot, but it’s not brought to the screen well by Campion. Going into this film, I knew that I would probably find it boring, but the first 45 minutes are really good. We see Keats’ poetry not being received well, the blossoming of the relationship between Keats and Brawne, and the exceptional acting of Paul Schneider as Mr. Brown. Once those novelties wear off, the film becomes extremely flat and one loses one’s concept of time. At some points, I felt as if I was watching a three-year romance unravel in real time. Keats and Miss Brawne get together way too early in the film, which seemed rather anti-climactic. With them together so early, there wasn’t anywhere for the story to go. In fact, even the characters’ own notion of time completely goes out the window. Keats will get up and leave for a year or so, then is back on screen in about 3 minutes. Later, Keats becomes sick and dies – the entire illness and demise requiring a scant 10 minutes. And as I say “John Keats” and “Charles Brown” I simply mean character names. This could have been a love story about any man and any woman in the 1900’s. The film has little to do with John Keats’ essence at all, which detached me from the movie immensely.

As for the poet himself, John Keats, Ben Whishaw does a good job with what he’s given. Aside from the fact that he plays a man who no one is alive today to account for, Whishaw did show us how emotionally consumed he was with love for Miss Brawne. What Whishaw did not show me was Keats’ illness. When the script called for him to be sick, he simply added a few coughs into his dialogue…that’s it. Abbie Cornish did an equally fine job Fanny Brawne. Miss Brawne isn’t the juiciest role to play, but adding this to her resume, makes the Australian actor extremely versatile in different looks and accents. She killed the heartbreaking scene though when she finds out Keats has passed away. Other scenes, like the one where Keats doesn’t write her when he’s away and she pines, “When he doesn’t write, I feel as if I died,” I could not have rolled my eyes any harder. Paul Schneider steals the show as Mr. Brown. He’s energetic, aggressive, and absolutely missed whenever not on screen. He plays the greedy best friend role so well that I’m sure the audience connected with him most easily.

This work is different for Jane Campion, but has been a passion project for her ever since she began to seriously read Keats’ poetry. Where it wouldn’t matter for many other directors, Bright Star lacks the quintessential “Jane Campion Sex Scene” which I found very weird for a 2-hour love story. But I have to give credit where it is due and say that the film does look amazing. The costumes, the lighting, and the sets really bring you to 1900’s London. What struck me as being her hardest task was consuming the entire movie with the one relationship. It didn’t have time to breathe. I think a story more about Keats’ work, rather than his romance with Miss Brawne, would have worked a lot better. We learn nothing about the man we read about in out literature books, the man we’re so interested in. In the grand scheme of things, his love life wasn’t new or fresh. The little we hear about his work was interesting, which was only in the very beginning and in the end credits. Bright Star is beautiful to look at, but it can’t play that card for 2 hours.

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