BRIGHT STAR (UK/Australia 2009) ****
Directed by Jane Campion

BRIGHT STAR is the title of the poem British poet John Keats (Ben Winshaw) wrote to his love Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish).  Their love was true but insurmountable owing to poverty, family and ultimately illness.

Trust NZ director Jane Campion (THE PIANO, HOLY SMOKE, PORTRAIT OF A LADY) to surprise audiences with a tender, moving and effective romance that is better than any of the romantic dramas or comedies churned out by Hollywood the past few years.  She shows that no star power, no perfectly handsome leading stars and no silliness are required to tell a good love story.  But she takes the true love story of one of the most famous poets of all time as her choice of material.

The film is set in Hampstead Village, England of 1818.  Thus begins the slow but burgeoning love between seamstress Fanny and poet John Keats.  Their affair is frowned upon especially by Keats’ best friend, Mr. Brown (Paul Schneider at his most irritating best) and also by her mother (Kerry Fox) though her mother finally understands and agrees to let Fanny go.  There is nothing much else in the story, which allows Campion freedom to let her story flow at her own pace.

BRIGHT STAR falters occasionally with a few dull parts (the segment of Fanny’s collection of butterflies; her poetry lessons) but the compelling parts can also be quite annoying (the frequent verbal banter between Mr. Brown and Fanny).  But the details Campion involves in her film from the music (by Mark Bradshaw) which subtly alters the audience to different moods and wardrobe are impressive.  But mostly, it is the little things like the notes passed along by the lovers and the waiting that sends the message of true love across to the audience.  The film also contains nice touches of beauty like the hung sheets blowing in the wind and scenes of the countryside.

The females in BRIGHT STAR (Fanny, her mother) have the strongest parts, Campion being a director of strong women films.  Ben Winshaw is no hunk of a man, but his quiet charm comes across well and his thin frame makes his illness credible.

I had first viewed BRIGHT STAR at the Toronto International Film Festival but only three quarters through owing to a projection problem.  Sitting through Campion’s film a second time proves the second line of Keats’ famous poem Endymion: ‘Its (beauty) loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.”