BRIGHT STAR (2009) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Jane Campion
Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, Paul Schneider.
Kerry Fox, Edie Martin, Antonia Campbell-Hughes
Love and John Keats. A good-looking period melodrama about the relationship between the great romantic poet and the love of his life, Fanny Brawne. The thing about falling in love with a poet, throughout history, is that poets seldom make any money, and that's a real problem for John and Fanny. No matter how much they adore each other, there's no getting around the fact that John's flat busted and always will be. So they do a lot of walking and talking and flirting and agonizing, but that's as far as it goes, because they're stuck. You'd think a movie with so much heartbreak and anguish going on would move you more, but there's something cold and distant about Campion's technique that prevents that. You watch John and Fanny's story play out without ever feeling involved in what happens to them. In a movie that's supposed to be all about emotion, that's a fatal flaw. Still, it does look real good, and all those pleats and ruffles and tall hats are a costume designer's dream. Paul Schneider has a showy good time as Keats' obnoxious patron and fellow poet, Brown, and Whishaw, who previously played the serial killer in "Perfume" and Rimbaud in "I'm Not There", looks right at home in the early 19th century.
