Review: Bright Star

On paper Bright Star looks like a film that can do no wrong directed by Jane Campion of The Piano fame and starring one of my favourite young British actors - Ben Whishaw and one of the finest young actresses around - Abby Cornish I thought it couldn't go wrong. But unfortunately it did go wrong. The main problem that the film has is that it is very dull indeed. A lot of it takes place inside very claustrophobic spaces and is very talky. The romance between the young John Keats and Fanny Brawne takes so long to arrive that when they finally kiss it provokes little reaction and other than a few kisses the relationship goes no further. Another problem is that the characters aren't particularly likeable, Keats is too neurotic always worrying about one thing or another while Brawne is awfully melodramatic at one point threatening to kill herself over a letter from Keats that is too short. The films main issue, however, is that nothing particularly happens there is a lot of fawning between the two characters until Keats finds out he's dying then there's some more whistful looks and he finally croaks.

That's not to say that Bright Star is an awful film there are some good points. Campion is still a fine director and she is able to deliver good performances from Cornish and Whishaw even though the characters are quite allienating the actors still try their hardest. Meanwhile American Paul Schneider is the star of the show as Keats' Scottish confident and all round womaniser Charles Brown. When the film finally makes it to outside locations they are beautifully shot and we do get a feel of what early Britain was like to live in. Overall though this doesn't compensate for the general lack of anything resembling an involving narrative and so the film felt flat from beginning to end and I was never personally engaged once during the whole thing.