Becoming Jane

We saw it last night with another mother-daughter couple with whom we have shared a seminary class studying and summers reading and discussing Jane Austen. It is a fictionalized depiction of the life of Jane Austen and included scenes of her reading aloud her works, dances, fairs, boxing matches. It had some scenes that were light-hearted and fun such as when Jane joins a cricket game. But the most engaging scenes depicted affection; either the presence of, or absence and desire of. The sisters' affection for one another, the Rev. Austen's affection for his wife and children were all well done and brought smiles repeatedly to my face. Jane's struggle with choosing to marry for stability or for affection and her heroic act to stop the elopement after reading an affectionate letter of thanks sent to Tom by his mother were all quite poignant.

One important note though, this movie was created out of the very little information we have on Jane Austen. If you have read the books you will immediately recognize many phrases, characters, and scenes from Austen's novels which does add to the enjoyment of the film. As in most cases it is assumed that a writer is unable to portray something that is outside of his personal experience especially in regards to relationships. While this is not a case where an author's life is read into his work, it is a case of the screenwriters reading her novels back into Jane's life. I won't say much about the plot as the movie is just opening in theaters this weekend and I don't want to spoil it for those of you who will see it. I'll revise my post later to included more details.

Essentially the movie is a fictionalized view of a small period in Jane Austen's life and just another in a long line of Romantic movies that insists in that order to be a great artist or even a great person you must throw off social/moral conventions. It was as if the film makers/writers had never read Mansfield Park. Another typical theme was the usual radical feminist view that women are strong and men are weak. This is a theme that is becoming tired and trite. It shows little understanding of true human nature as possessing both marred and glorious aspects and a lack of imagination to be able to portray both aspects in one human. Understanding and imagination that Jane Austen possessed and used to produce Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightley, and a whole host of others both men and women. Producers and writers would do well to recognize that a film with both women and men being strong even though flawed is not only possible and but just as true to reality as the one-sided approach they maintain.

But, what bothers me the most was who was given credit for all of the clever Janeisms. This movie presented the idea that Jane's ideas for characters, dialogues, catch phrases, etc. came from others within her sphere, not from her imagination and understanding of both language arts and human nature. It portrayed her fictional characters as being based on real individuals and in certain ways she was simply a stenographer. From this outlook I guess I should be expected to believe that Tolkien hung out with dwarves and elves, Lewis engaged in space travel and Rowling showed up at her interviews with broom in hand wearing a Holyhead Harpies jersey. So much for fertile imaginations.


Warning: Be aware there is one very short scene, viewed from the back, with 2 men stripped down to nothing jumping into a river.