Movie 59: Bright Star

The story of a 3 year love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne

Which is a lot more thrilling sounding than it actually is. Welcome to Victorian England, where everyone is a bit poncy and lacking in emotion. Like poetry for the most part then.

I’m not a big fan of poetry. You could say its because I just don’t get it, or that I’m an uncultured oik or any number of things. Frankly I think most of what I’ve read of it is a bit shit. My cousin is a poet, I liked some of her stuff that I’ve read and haven’t thought any of it is particularly crap, but I would never go out of my way to buy a poetry book. I don’t know if I’ve read any Keats. If you a fan you may love this film, otherwise you’ll probably find it rather dull.

A big part of the problem seems to be the characters, though not particularly the acting. Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is a flouncy pain in the arse a lot of the time, interested in sewing and dances and not much else. Keats (Ben Wishaw) spends a lot of his time lying about and staring at nothing, looking for inspiration with his best friend Mr Brown (Paul Schneider) who’s a complete shit to everyone. They talk in large formal flowing sentences. Poor Thomas Sangster is relegated to what’s basically a featured extra role, I can’t remember him saying a word through the whole thing.

Edie Martin who plays Toot’s little sister is kind of adorable though. She looks a lot like a ginger version of my girlfriends oldest daughter. And the cat is quite nice too.

It’s just so damned dull though. A lot of what the main characters express is semi-realistic in any age, yes. The longing you feel sometimes, the pain of separation, all that stuff. But it’s portrayed in the “no, you hang up” style. We might all have done that at some point in our lives but it’s not good script material. Stupid to do, but love makes you stupid, and boring to watch. And a lot of it is lacking in any real passion, particularly as the characters aren’t all that relatable.

And there isn’t really any drama. In a film where the main character gets hypothermia, then I’m assuming some kind of pneumonia, then DIES there should be some bloody DRAMA but there isn’t. I didn’t feel any tension at all, couldn’t care less.

There may be a lot I’m missing as I don’t really know anything about the side characters and they aren’t fleshed out. If you’re a poetry nut then give it a shot, if your not then don’t bother. Frankly this should have been shown on a Sunday night on BBC 1 instead of being released as a full on movie.

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