BRIGHT STAR is a film of near perfection and lyrical beauty

Apparition | 2009 | Rated PG | 119 minutes

Writer and director Jane Campion (THE PIANO) turns to Regency Era London for her newest film, BRIGHT STAR. Following the love affair between the Romantic poet John Keats and his next door neighbor in Hampstead, Fanny Brawne, BRIGHT STAR gently weaves together the personal stories of the two individuals to create a film of an intense lyrical beauty. While much of Keats’s and Brawne’s relationship still remains a mystery to this day since most all of their correspondence with one another was burned, Campion does a remarkable job in her development of each of the characters, transforming Keats from a larger than life literary figure that is more iconic than human, into an accessible and passionate individual, while at the same time giving voice to Brawne. The result is a film that completely envelopes the viewer and allows them to see into a very private and intimate world of a deeply emotional level. Campion has once again created a work of art that is in a word, brilliant.

Basing an entire period piece only on the protracted love affair between the two principal characters, drawn out over a three year period, could prove to be a risky move in the fact that it could grow tedious to the audience, but with BRIGHT STAR, Abbie Cornish (Fanny Brawne) and Ben Whishaw (John Keats) create such remarkable and fully realized characters that completely embody the true life counterparts they are portraying. Their performances are some of the best seen on the screen this year, and the chemistry between the two is undeniably beautiful. What is of great note though is that Campion does not create a Brawne that is merely smitten with the young poet based on his artistic spirit alone and thus relegating her to wooing after him throughout the film. On the contrary, Campion presents a strong and independent Brawne who designs her own outlandish fashions and never surrenders her own individuality. Having such a strong central female character, played to perfection by Cornish, is the key to the brilliance of the film. This is best evidenced in a scene where Brawne’s younger sister Margaret (Edie Martin) is sent to the bookseller to purchase a copy of Keats’s poem ENDYMION and she explains that Fanny “only wants to read it to see if Keats is an idiot or not.”

Campion structures the movie much like a poem itself, instilling in it a lyricality that not only helps define the poetical philosophy of the Romantics, but also serves to further develop each of the characters. Keats sets out to teach Brawne how to read a poem and throughout their lessons he relays to her that, “A poet has no individuality,” and that, “A poem needs understanding through the senses, an experience beyond thought.” In these simple lines, great insight is given into exactly who Keats is as an individual, and by allowing the poetic words to define character, Campion as a writer creates a beautifully rolling pacing for the film that never becomes bogged down in scenes that try to fill in backstory for the viewer, either through long exposition or through flashback. Instead, a single period in time is focused upon and allowed to bloom naturally from the relationship established between the principal characters.

This naturalistic approach to the development of character is mirrored within the aesthetics of the film itself. Campion masterfully utilizes the expansiveness of the natural world juxtaposed against the confinement of the life within the home to mirror the state of mind of the characters, and the struggles they face in their relationship. When the two are outside they are truly free and anything is indeed possible, but when they are indoors, there always seems to be a barricade between them. Living in rooms adjoining one another, Keats and Brawne move their beds against the shared wall to feel closer to one another, even if they are separated by an obstruction. Brawne even tries to capture the magic she feels when she is outdoors with Keats by breeding butterflies in her room, not allowing them to escape, but as Campion shows, when one tries to contain the elements of the natural, it cannot be sustained and eventually will die. Cinematographer Greig Fraser (AUSTRALIA) is able to capture the transition between these two worlds beautifully, and the pictures he is able to create, when blended with Campion’s words, exemplifies true artistry.

BRIGHT STAR is a remarkable film and one of the best love stories and dramas to hit the theatres in recent years. Campion’s writing and directing is second to none and Cornish and Whishaw create remarkably brilliant and engaging characters. Campion never lets the period accoutrements of costumes or sets overshadow the heart of the film. She instead creates a world for her characters to grow and develop within, and in the process creates a film of a pure and unadulterated romantic beauty that should not be missed.

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