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Metascore
81 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 63 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider
  • Summary: London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet, John Keats, and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, and outspoken student of fashion. This unlikely pair started at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, she unimpressed by literature in general. It was the illness of Keats' younger brother that drew them together. Keats was touched by Fanny's efforts to help and agreed to teach her poetry. By the time Fanny's alarmed mother and Keats' best friend Brown realized their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept into powerful new sensation, "I have the feeling as if I were dissolving," Keats wrote her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. Only Keats' illness proved insurmountable. (Apparition)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    100
    Intimate as a whisper, immediate as a blush, and universal as first love, the PG-rated film positively palpitates with the sensual and spiritual.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    100
    A fine-boned, luminous tribute to Keats and the sufferings of love.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    60
    There's nothing exceptional about Jane Campion's historical biography, but it's a sufficiently lovely tale to suit romantics with a taste for intimate period dramas.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 29
  3. Negative: 8 out of 29
  1. ElaineS
    10
    Beautiful film, loved Abbie Cornish as Fanny. It is so nice to see such an outstanding performance from an actress these days espcially in a time piece. The visual aspects and scenery were stunning.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. KatherineS
    5
    Tepid, boring, and precious. I din't, actually, find the period detail convincing. It was distracting, and many of the scene reminded me of advertisers' idealizations or lifestyle images showing children of different ages all engaging in idyllic pastimes on large green lawns that only the priveleged can access. I also thought that both Cornish and Wishaw were miscast. Wishaw was turnoff and Cornish was stolid. I also couldn't catch a fair amount of the dialogue. An generally overrated film, I would say. I wonder what the UK reviews say.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. WillB
    3
    When the whole of Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" is read over the credits, any emotion the well-done cinematography and acting has managed to ring out of Campion's uninspired writing is revealed as quite forgettable and useless in comparison to the incandescent emotional output of the film's subject. The problem is that the film expects romance to stand on its own, when Keats' work is about a romance with art so strong that the rest of the world bends around it.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes

See all 29 User Reviews

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