Bright star tells the story of John Keats the great romantic poet through the eyes of his love and inspiration - Fanny Brawn. Inspired by the actual love letters between the couple and Keats' sublime poetry, Bright star will reveal a great untold love story from the heart of one of literature's most loved and tragic figures.
Special Agent Matti
Hoo boy. You have to like period dramas to like this film. Think Jane Austen. You also have to like John Keats' poetry. Think Ode on a Grecian urn. Whatever. You also have to like unrequited love. Not a fan. What I did like in this film is the cinematography. There are images and colours that made me fall in love with the English countryside all over again. Don't get me wrong, I love a sunburnt country, but so much of English culture is predicated on the English countryside: rolling green hills, leafy forests, wild flowers, the inevitable turn of the seasons, nothing to kill you but a bit of bad weather.
Ben Whishaw is the perfect romantic hero (let alone Romantic poet): you'll fall in love with him in the first three seconds. He also played the uber-camp Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead revisited. Talk about versatility.
If you like old-time manners and romance you'll adore Bright star. You're also probably a chick or an aging professor of English literature.
The John Keats biography movie Bright star is directed by Jane Campion and stars Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox.
PG (Mild themes)
119 minutes (1:59 hours)
Film: Undated December 2009
