Once Upon A Time in Jane Austen World

"Stop gloating about yourself and then maybe you could play more songs!" -my sister, complaining about Celine Dion

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So let me begin by saying that James McAvoy is possibly the most fantastic actor alive. I am extremely proud to say that the first film premiere I ever attended was 'Becoming Jane.' For Valentine's, I re-screened it with my best friend.
Although the underrated Anne Hathaway carries the film, James McAvoy steals the show. Loosely based on what many girls hope and pray is a real man, Tom Lefroy is converted from philandering bad boy to hopeless romantic. The most amazing thing of all is watching this transformation, subtly, and how McAvoy makes it seem not only believable, but possible.
The film is exquisite and has a romantic score by Adrian Johnston. I'm usually also a big fan of costumes, and though there are some lovely gowns, it was interesting to see the plainness of some of the simpler day dresses Jane and her family wore. On the night of the "grand ball," Hathaway was dressed in the most terrible gown. It could have been any other color: the pale green washed her out and the puffy sleeves were terrible. Meanwhile, Dame Maggie Smith rocks out in a fantastic midnight blue satin number that knocks my socks off. And yet Hathaway makes Jane real, beautiful, charming, the kind of girl that I could see myself being really great friends with.
The relationship between Jane and her sister Cassandra (though casting-wise, the two look nothing alike: but the cousin, a French countess, played by Lucy Cohu, could be an older Anne) is admirable. Being a sister myself, I can see that there is a lot of truth in the way they act towards each other.
There is some old-age makeup in the film, and I am definitely a stickler about makeup. They aged Hathaway, but Cohu hadn't grown a day older! It was a bit ridiculous, but the facial hair and the changes of costume for the times was remarkably dead-on.
This one DEFINITELY pulled the Rabbit Out Of The Hat! Heartbreaking at times, and bittersweet, with a beautiful supporting cast, each bringing his or her own tone to the film, like each was an instrument, creating a full and perfect orchestra. So I didn't like one dress, and I needed more than one hankie while watching. I saw it in theaters twice and bought the DVD the moment of its US release.
That brings me to one B.F.: Why are films released so late in the U.S.? It came out in the U.K. in March and didn't arrive in the States until August! And the DVD was the same, I had to wait a ridiculous amount of time before being able to procure the region one! Grrrr....
OK, so now about what I mentioned earlier:
Last March, some friends and I went to Europe. All throughout the Underground tube stations, I would see posters for this new movie, 'Becoming Jane,' and get all excited. I couldn't wait for it to come out. One night, my sister and I found ourselves lost on the streets of London. I had visited before and had been spoiled by the kindness of strangers I'd met there in years past. Unfortunately for us (or maybe very fortunately, as it turns out) no one gave us the time of day. It was dark and cold and rainy and we were basically miserable when we finally found what we were searching for (a free teddy bear, actually) and were leaving the store when I saw the hugest James McAvoy poster I'd ever seen. It was fantastic, so I stepped forward to take a picture. Then I noticed that there was a huge crowd around all these bright lights. The crowd was being held back by barricades. So we went closer. That's when I saw the camera men. And the cars. And the RED CARPET. If I thought I was going to faint then, I had something else coming. My senses on overload (partly because of the loud classical music blaring from giant speakers and the blue-white spotlight on the giant poster), I pushed through the crowd to the edge of the barricade. And at exactly that moment, a sleek car pulled up and out from the back seat emerged a handsome man in a smart black suit. He smiled up at us from beneath his curly brown hair. It was James McAvoy. I only managed to get one blurry picture that remotely shows that its him, but all the same it was worth the entire trip for that moment. Not because of him, or because of the glitz and glamour of it all. It's because I love movies more than anything else in the world.

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