A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Becoming Jane

Date Viewed: 8/18/07

Details:

Anne Hathaway (Jane Austen)

James McAvoy (Tom Lefroy)

Julie Walters (Mrs. Austen)

James Cromwell (Rev Austen)

Maggie Smith (Lady Gresham)

Director: Julian Jarrold

Score: +

The Review: A fictional biography of the young Jane Austen, providing some alleged insight into the mill from which the grist of her novels arose. You don't have to be an deep aficionado of her work to recognize the plot elements of Pride and Prejudice, among others, in the debris of her love life. But since that's the only one I have any minor degree of familiarity with, it sufficed for superficial entertainment.

Occasionally clever, in the style of an Austen novel in bringing some odd characters together. Not bad. It's always a pleasure to sink into Hathaway's enormous eyes, and both Cromwell and Walters are well-cast as her parents.

(23-Sep-07)

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