Bright Star (2009)

In 2009, Jane Campion was the "other" Oscar-nominated female director to release a film. This is, of course, because of "The Hurt Locker," which scored Kathryn Bigelow the first Oscar statue for a woman in the directing category. But in the modern era, Campion was the first to have a shot at the podium with "The Pianist," her 1993 stunner that I knew, even at the age of 20 when it was released, was something beautiful and special.

Campion is no Terrence Malick, but she puts herself in the running with her lazy pace of film releases. For this reason alone, serious movie lovers welcomed her back this past year with BRIGHT STAR, a biography film of sorts about the blossoming romance between 19th Century Romantic poet John Keats, who died young at the age of 25, and his brief romance of a few years with a neighbor girl, Fanny Brawne, who was known to be the inspiration for some of his greatest poems. Campion, who writes her own screenplays, is said to have taken inspiration from the letters that Keats and Brawne sent to one another, in addition to the literary output of Keats itself.

I can say with confidence that BRIGHT STAR is every bit as lovely as anything else Campion has done. I might even go so far as to say that it is the most gorgeous film of 2009 on a purely romantic visual level. It seems as though Campion took great pains to make her film look as beautiful as the poetry of Keats sounds. Unfortunately for me, this was the extent of my love for BRIGHT STAR.

Even for someone as patient and literate as I would like to think I am, I found BRIGHT STAR to move at a snail's pace and thought the romance was hard to grasp. I am certain that my last phrase will cause some to think of me as a bit of a lug, but I should clarify that I don't need a sex scene in a film to buy into an onscreen romance between two characters. So restrained was the interaction between members of the opposite sex in this time and culture, however, that I struggled to feel that passion myself. Don't get me wrong - I detected it whenever the words of Keats were being read or spoken in the film. I just couldn't get into it the way this story was being told.

Campion's formalist and lingering filmmaking style, as much as it bored me, seemed to be the right choice for this story, and I'm not sure she should have done anything differently. As I've stated before, the cinematography here is just stunning. I could point to any of a dozen moments in this two hour film as visuals that will flutter in my mind long after I've forgotten the film's plot details.

I think BRIGHT STAR is just one of those examples of a situation where someone is selling something and just didn't feel like buying it. And there was nothing wrong with what was being sold. I just wasn't terribly interested. Maybe I'm not supposed to respond that way, but I feel entitled to do so every now and again.

I can certainly recognize that BRIGHT STAR was directed with control and precision by a true master of her craft. I have a lot of respect for Campion and for what she accomplishes here. But the pacing of the film made it hard to ignite a fire in my interest that wasn't there to begin with. In fact, I only really found the film's final half hour to be engaging.

BRIGHT STAR is, indeed, beautiful. But it's also boring.

2.5 out of 4