BRIGHT STAR
Directed by Jane Campion
Jane Campion’s previous films have either irritated me or completely passed me by, so it was with some surprise that I was so completely bowled over by BRIGHT STAR, the story of the love between John Keats and Fanny Brawne that inspired some of the former’s greatest poetry. In the two lead roles, Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish excel, Cornish, in particular, is at her very best here. There is genuine romantic chemistry between them, which is exacerbated by Campion’s painterly skill with the camera. With a film so unashamedly about beauty, and beautiful things; you have a right to expect gorgeousness to permeate every frame. It is to Campion’s immense credit that not only does she surpass any such expectations; she doesn’t neglect the simple beauty and pathos of her story, or of the work of her inspiration. Whishaw reads a Keats poem over the end credits, and the effect is crushing.
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