Bright Star

How different this is from the other films I've seen recently. No big explosions, no computer generated images flashing urgently and vying for my attention. Bright Star is a holiday away from all that glitter and show, relying instead on actual character and story.
It is the story of John Keats, early nineteenth century romantic poet, and his doomed love affair with Fanny Brawne. Doomed because he had no money to marry her (as that was the way of the time) and also because of his untimely death.
Written and directed by New Zealander Jane Campion, Bright Star is set in Hampstead where Fanny (Abby Cornish) lives with her mother, (Kerry Fox) and her two younger siblings Sam (Thomas Sangster) and 'Toots' (Edie Martin). After Keats' brother Tom passes away, he moves into rooms at the house at Hampstead with fellow poet Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schnieder) who is, I must say, portrayed here as a bit of a prick, but he does a very good job at being a prick!
Fanny Brawne, almost like the Coco Chanel of her time, designs and makes all of her own clothes. She meets Keats and falls in love, exchanging letters whenever they are apart. Due to Keats' lack of funds, her mother isn't too keen for them to marry, instead sending her off to dances to meet someone more suitable in the financial department. At Hampstead her and Keats go for long walks in the forests always followed by loyal Sam and curious Toots.
Something must be said about the costuming in this film, just splendid. I do like a good bonnet movie and this was a movie with good bonnets! The attention to detail, with set decoration and even lighting, is impeccable.
Ben Whishaw (Perfume) plays Keats with a quiet melancholy that is often found in genius. His steady decay as what would later be diagnosed as tuberculosis takes its hold is very sad to watch. The moment Brown tells the Brawne family of Keats death is heart-wrenching.
Both Cornish and Whishaw put in sterling performances, its very easy to get pulled into their world of love and letters.
I must admit, I've never read any of Keats' work but I will now. It is such a shame that genius is rarely discovered when it's maker is still alive. A brilliant and moving film.

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

A collection of Keats' letters to Fanny Brawne can be found here