A universal trait of human beings is our curiosity, and I believe it's curiosity that makes me devour biographies whenever I lay hands on them and also biographical films.
Biographical films tell the hallmark tales of a popular or historical person or figure. We hear or read of spectacular events surrounding a person or groups of people but miss out on how those events affected/shaped the individuals involved on a personal level. That's what biographies and such movies are for.
I look at popular figures in our society and wonder how they fared or lived their lives behind closed doors and how their minds work. I am sure you have always wondered the same thing.
When I am too lazy to read a biography, I settle for the movie adaptations and it seems there are more releases of biographies from Hollywood in recent times than before.
So, I came across Becoming Jane (2007) when I ran a search of Anne Hathaway films. Usually, I like to watch movies by actors and actresses that I am familiar with. I think I was kind of missing her movies. So I checked to see the ones I had not watched.
Becoming Jane caught my attention because it's a biographical movie on a small part of Jane Austen's life! I mean the same Jane Austen, author of the popular literary classic Pride and Prejudice amongst other major novels like Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and Emma.
Her literary style is distinct and captivating to me because they reflect British lifestyle and social class in the 18th century. Her books among other classic novelists like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Brontë sisters were books I grew up reading. So I kind of have a fondness for the British way of life. Well, you may not share my enthusiasm if you are not a bibliophile. I wasted no time downloading and watching this movie.
Becoming Jane is a bit of an old film, released in 2007, which depicts the early life of Jane Austen. It focused on her family and how she came to fall in love with a country solicitor, Thomas Langlois Lefroy.
When I read the short summary of Ms Austen's life at the back of her books, there was never any reference to a partner, husband or children. I'd believed she lived and died a spinster. Imagine my surprise when this movie which relied on some of Jane Austen's personal letters revealed that the famed author did have a love interest. I guess at some point every person must be swept off their feet or have their hearts broken in love.
In Becoming Jane, Anne Hathaway starred as Jane Austen while James McAvoy played the part of her love interest.
The movie draws a viewer into the background and lifestyle of Jane and her family, how she aspired to be a writer and how her first meeting with the country solicitor with a bad reputation was unimpressive which in turn paved the way to their romance.
For a lover of period dramas, I could not fault any part of this movie. The actors depicted their parts excellently even down to the English accents and the story was well told. I would recommend it to biographical movie buffs.
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