Becoming Jane

[pegkerr]

I have been watching, with some interest, the abounding cattiness on Austenblog about the upcoming movie Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway. Here is a typical entry, made by someone who has seen the movie and hated it. Here are all the entries tagged Becoming Jane.

Of course, Austenblog's entire reason d’être is cattiness (their byline is "One lump of snark or two?") But this has been very interesting to observe. Besides simply disliking Anne Hathaway and bristling at the historical inaccuracies, they hate the assumption which seems to underlie the screenplay: that Jane Austen couldn't have written about love unless she had lived it. There seems to be some need on Hollywood's part to explain a "spinster" writing all these richly emotional books.

As an author, I do have sympathy for their irritation with this point of view--while the degree of the virulence of their loathing fascinates me, and is certainly entertaining to watch.

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

Some of the criticism I've heard about the film (not its premise, mind, just the film itself) is the fact that Anne Hathaway is American. The same thing was said about Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter. Whilst I admit I liked Miss Potter (yeah, it's twee, but so what? ;), I wasn't thrilled with Zellweger in the title role. In terms of actresses, I admired Emily Watson more in that film, playing Beatrix's would-have-been sister-in-law.

Even if Hathaway can assume a plausible English accent, she's no Meryl Streep. And whilst Zellweger's vocals were okay for Bridget Jones, I kept hearing Bridget's vowels creeping into Beatrix. Yuck! At least Julie Walters is cast as Jane's mother. That's something. (And Maggie Smith and James McAvoy are in it also. So, it's not all American stars. :)

I'll probably see it when it opens here in March. Heck, I work ten minutes from where Jane died in Winchester and where she's buried in Winchester Cathedral. :)

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a dismal movie. I suppose I'll watch it though, all the better to complain. It DOES seem an attempt to over-write Austen's work, it DOES seem an attempt to bury the truth under melodrama, it seems, by people who, yunno, do that for a living... sigh

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I have a theory about movies, but it's based on the reactions I've seen some people have to movies based on science fiction novels, so I don't know if it applies to this situation.

Anywho...

Let's say that a movie's just come out based on some SF classic--Foundation, for example. I think some people would automatically reject it because the movie isn't what they've imaged, and what the movie is, is more "real".

I don't think I've explained this well enough, and have to think this out for a bit.

More later.