I have never been partial to love stories for the sake of love stories. I find them trite, saccharine, and highly manipulative as well as unforgivably contrary to reality. It is a deeply held opinion that might even be hereditary. My mother told me how she was castigated by her peers for laughing during a tender moment in the movie Love Story. There are none so vicious as a pack of teen-aged girls and it's a wonder she escaped with her life.
If you are the type of person who enjoys this type of stilted period drama, if you liked (or didn't sleep through) Sense and Sensibility, if you didn't require the addition of zombies and ninjas to tolerate Pride and Prejudice, then you'll probably really enjoy this movie. It is based off the letters written back and forth between Romantic poet John Keats and his muse/mooney-eyed object of affection Fanny Brawne.
Since we've now established my utter loathing of movies of this nature, I will say the costumes were gorgeous. I'm not (again) a fan of the empire-waist phenomenon of the post-Napoleanic age, but the colors and the fabrics were a feast for the eyes, even if the script dulled the mind. I think its only real contender for the Oscar is going to be The Young Victoria, which I have not been able to see since I have been stuck in three feet of snow.
My one piece of unequivocal praise has to be for Ben Whishaw, who is shaping up to be a damn fine actor. I couldn't place his face but the name stuck out to me for some reason in the opening credits and, after the film finished rolling, I went to my own collection and pulled out a strange, brightly-petaled, hot-(art)house flower of a movie called Perfume: Story of a Murderer. You would not know that was the same actor in both movies. I love it when I get a surprise like that. So, bravo to Ben Whishaw for being the only watchable living thing in Bright Star. And go back to killing people so I can enjoy you.
I know we have established in prior posts that you have no soul; you are in fact a drone sent here from a planet similar to Vulcan ~ and that is deduced by your utter lack of FEELINGS and EMOTIONS...and by your SUPERIOR intelligence (I can only pray that you do not express emotions when called for them at the destruction of your planet, cause that would suck)...anyway, I feel personally slighted when you speak so ill of love stories because you find them "trite, saccharine, and highly manipulative as well as unforgivably contrary to reality"...well, I think you are just bitter. And because you are so bitter, I will watch this film to spite you...good day madame.
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