Bright Star (2009/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C+
Save The Piano, I have not been a big fan of
the output of Director Jane Campion. Though
she is talented and makes films of some depth hand detail, that it gets lost
too often in melodrama and predictability.
Bright Star (2009) tells of
the love affair that only works out so well between John Keats (Ben Whishaw, Layer Cake) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie
Cornish). Well acted and at times
believable, it is just as often boring and routine.
She also
wrote the screenplay, which as usual, tends to be more book-like and
restrictive than films like this should be by now. Other things (costumes, locations, the look
of the film) do work, yet I wanted to see more of a character study, but when
all was said and done, this could have been just about anyone’s love affair,
and some phony requirement to have read Keats’ work before seeing the film is a
pure cop-out. This is safe filmmaking at
best and only for the most interested.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image was shot in 3-perf Super 35mm instead of using a whole
1.33 block with a hard or soft matte.
The transfer here is a little softer than I would have liked, but I
believe Director of Photography Grieg Fraser (The Boys Are Back) likely did a better job than one can see
here. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is on the
dialogue-based, quiet side with Mark Bradshaw’s good score, but don’t expect
much in the way of dynamics. Extras include
three making of featurettes (Becoming
Keats and Fanny, Setting The Scene,
An Inspiring Romance) and Deleted
Scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
