Bright Star

Drew's Thoughts:
Jane Campion (The Piano) excels at the period piece so I was curious to see this film about the doomed romance of poet John Keats and his "bright star" Fanny Brawne. I liked the film quite a bit more than I expected mainly due to Abbie Cornish who gives the best female performance I've seen this year. She's remarkable as Fanny, giving a very confident, expressive performance. Without her the film could not have achieved as much success as it did. Paul Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) was also good in his supporting role as Charles Armitage Brown, sporting a credible Scottish accent and a newly expanded waistline. He always has a great presence in movies, but this is the most "demanding" role he's taken and he does a good job adding a bit of humor (and mean-spirited quips) to the film. Ben Whishaw was also good, but I guess he had maybe the less interesting character in my opinion compared to the other two.
I liked that the film wasn't a Keats bio-pic (not that there'd be anything wrong with that) but was a well-written, affecting romance and their relationship drives the film rather than his poetry. The film drags a little 3/4s through when it becomes inevitable that Keats will die and it's just a matter of time. Though I guess that was the reality of it.
Technically the film is quite sound. The costumes were good and the cinematographer Greig Fraser made good use of lighting. The purple wildflowers were beautiful as well.

Colleen's Thoughts:
A fan of Keats (especially "Ode on a Grecian Urn") since high school I was looking forward to the movie Bright Star. I knew before I saw the film that Keats had a very interesting story for a poet of this time, he was poor and in debt (because of his dead father and sick brother) and was not of the aristocratic class. In that day and age just one of those two bad marks would bar you from being a poet people read and cared about. He is the exception to the rule of the famous Romantic poets. However, this movie seems to care very little about any of that. It is all about his passionate love relationship with Fanny and she is clearly who the film centers on. It was a bit melodramatic and heavy but nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable film. Jane Campion clearly knew what she was doing so there are no glaring mistakes or complaints.
I loved the cinematography and art direction. My friend Val, who saw the movie with us (she got us in for 40 cents each woohoo!) said that the movie looked like a poem. I thought this was a very intelligent comment. A movie about one of the most famous poets in Romanticism should look like a poem. The English country is beautiful (by the way it takes place in Hampstead Heath which as Lizzie, mom, Drew and I know is now a beautiful posh area where lots of rich folk live) However, at this time it is a quiet area outside of the city with lovely flowers and lakes. I liked that the indoors of the houses didn't look too extravagant, even people with money like the one's in the film did not really have all that much to show off. I loved the shots through the windows.
I also LOVED Paul Schneider's (All the Real Girls) performance. I had no idea it was him and I really thought he was a native Scot or Brit. You hated him when you were supposed to and liked him when you were supposed to. I wish that the character of Keats would have been a little bit more fully formed, for instance I really like the scene where he is pacing in the rain and gets mad at Fanny and Mr. Brown but Keats (Whishaw) isn't given many lines or scenes where he can do a lot. I still thought Whishaw was good though. Abbie Cornish also was very good and is def a front runner along with Penelope for this year's best actor. She acted like a young woman passionately in love and I also respected her, sometimes those two are hard to pull off together. I also loved the little red head girl, best child actor of the year so far. And of course, I can't NOT talk about the ADORABLE tuxedo cat that plays such a prominent role in this film. He/She is so cute and would fit perfectly in the Kenny clan. I wanted to take him/her home after the film with me.
All in all this was clearly one of the best Dolphin films this year and will make a strong showing in the Colleen noms.