I watched my brand spanking newly released copy of Becoming Jane last night. I have to say that this is one of those movies that surprised me. I did not think it would be as good as it was - and it is even better the second time around!



If you are familiar with Jane Austen, you will recognize almost all of her most promiment characters woven into the characters and storylines of this movie. It is a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours and a pretty good pick for Valentine's Day.



I was very skeptical of Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen, but in the end I was impressed. She was wonderful! And though I had never even heard of James McAvoy until I saw him in this movie, I count myself as a fan! Still need to see Atonement as I hear he is superb in it!



The very best part of this movie is that is shows Jane Austen and her family and friends as *real people* - not the super idealized caracatures we have made them out to be. For that alone, this movie gets thumbs up from me!

Becoming Jane

After all the wailing and gnashing of teeth because I thought I was not going to be able to see this movie on the big screen, I got a lucky break.

Becoming Jane never came to my local theater. I have checked every Friday since the film opened. Just on a whim, I checked to see if it might be playing in Bozeman this weekend and to my shock - it was! Since Saturday was my niece's birthday party, I packed up the car and my own kids and went to my Mom's a day early and spent the night at her house, just so I could see this movie.

I have to say, it was not at all what I was expecting. The Janites have been chattering about this movie for some time now. Some of the commentary has been good - some not so good. That is to be expected from that group.

Having seen this movie I was relieved. The writers and producers of this movie painted Jane Austen as a real woman with real passions and desires. She was not an over analysed, cardboard representation of herself and I cannot say how much I appreciated that. In this movie, Jane Austen sees a naked bum, reads Tom Jones, talks about sex, kisses a man and then actually runs away to Scotland with him. Sadly, she and the man she is in love with never make it to Scotland and they never marry. I do not know how much of this movie is actually factual and to be blunt, I really don't care. Over analyzing things ruins them in my opinion. This is a movie - not a documentary - and so it can be assumed that this is a loose interpretation of what happened during Jane's acquaintance with Tom LeFroy. The only two who *really* know what happened are the two of them and I for one would like to leave it that way.

In short, I loved this movie - despite my Mom complaining that I did not put enough salt and butter on the popcorn - and wanted to turn right around and see it again. Alas.....that did not happen and so I will have to wait until it comes out on DVD to see it again. Can't wait!!