I just watched the video Bright Star with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw. I seemed to recall that it didn't get great reviews when it was released, but I wanted to see it anyway since I'm a sucker for period romances, especially if they have a literary theme. It's the story of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. My opinion of the story? Gosh, the cinematography was beautiful. I thought for a while trying to figure out whether it was the character Fanny or Abbie Cornish playing Fanny that I disliked. I think the answer is both. Fanny is brash and outspoken, with strong opinions and a healthy sense of self. These qualities were apparent. She seemed so modern to me, almost out of place, and this was disconcerting and continually prevented me from losing myself in the story. I can imagine that would be exactly why another person would like it, until Fanny starts mooning over Keats, that is. And, despite the poetry, I couldn't figure out what she or Keats saw in each other (perhaps there's my answer). Whishaw's Keats was pretty and pale and weak, and Cornish's Fanny was pretty and pushy and whiny. I don't like to stop a movie before I finish it, but I was sorely tempted to shut it off and end my misery. The movie seemed like a teenage girl’s fantasy of what love and romance is, epitomized in the film in one scene with Fanny and a room full of butterflies that symbolize her relationship, blah, blah, blah. All I kept thinking of during the scene was the welfare of those poor cooped-up butterflies. As I said, the cinematography was lovely and that’s was held me until the end. After the movie was over, I went online and looked again at the reviews and found them overwhelmingly positive. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood when I watched it, but even a few days later, as you can probably tell from this post, I can’t think of the movie objectively. It filled me with emotions, certainly—disbelief, annoyance, and impatience for it to be over.
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