| 88 |
USA Today
If one were to fuse the literary sensibility of Jane Austen with the fanciful imaginative license of "Shakespeare in Love," what would emerge would likely be the charming tale Becoming Jane.
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| 80 |
Variety
An ersatz "Pride and Prejudice" in all but name, Becoming Jane is a finely tooled Brit-lit costumer that, like Anne Hathaway's flawless accent as the young Austen, lacks only that final convincing 5%.
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| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Becoming Jane has a burnished feminine sadness, and the director, Julian Jarrold, gives it a creamy-dark visual flow.
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| 75 |
New York Post
Instead of trying to make Austen's life entertaining by pretending it was just like her work - as in the dull recent French movie "Molière" - Becoming Jane has a more astute appreciation of how Austen, or any fiction writer, works. There's a bit of stealing from life, lots of exaggeration, some wish fulfillment, mix-and-match character assembly.
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| 75 |
Boston Globe
Anne Hathaway's Jane is headstrong and clever, balanced and true.
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| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The way all of this plays out is acted warmly by the principals, and Eigil Bryld's photography (of Ireland) makes England look breathtakingly green and inviting. The director, Julian Jarrold ("Kinky Boots" and the TV version of "White Teeth") is comfortable with the material, and it is comfortable with him.
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| 75 |
Premiere
Deborah Day
Hathaway's proven charms work magic here.
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| 70 |
Film Threat
Hathaway's exuberance and dramatic range are fitting for this portrayal of the celebrated literary figure.
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| 67 |
Portland Oregonian
But if the notion that Austen was more reactive than creative in her writing is troubling, so is the idea that she needed Lefroy to make her into a great writer. "Experience is vital," he tells her. We should be glad this guy never got his paws on Emily Dickinson.
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| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's an enjoyable period romance. Yet, ultimately, the unique magic of Austen so beautifully caught in 1996's "Emma" is missing.
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| 67 |
Christian Science Monitor
It's movie-making as match-making.
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| 63 |
ReelViews
There are enough similarities between the movie and "Pride and Prejudice" that one could be forgiven thinking this screenplay is Austen lite.
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| 63 |
TV Guide
Jane Austen deserves better than to be subordinated to her own creation, the spirited Lizzy Bennet.
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| 63 |
New York Daily News
We can't quite shake the feeling we've seen this all done before, and better.
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| 63 |
Miami Herald
Where the film goes wrong is in its attempts to cling too firmly to "Pride and Prejudice."
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| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
With so many good Austen adaptations out there (the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice, the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice, Emma Thompson and Ang Lee's splendid Sense and Sensibility), Becoming Jane seems a bit flimsy by comparison.
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| 63 |
Charlotte Observer
Movies about artists play fast and loose with truth, but this is a hoot.
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| 60 |
The New Yorker
Once you admit that the Jane Austen depicted onscreen bears scant relation to any person named Jane Austen, living or dead, the film fulfills its purpose.
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| 60 |
Newsweek
As the proud, independent young author, Hathaway is both subdued and alluring--it's her most mature performance. The movie goes down easy, but there's a thin line here: is this an homage or a parasite?
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| 60 |
Village Voice
Ella Taylor
Becoming Jane turns into a presentable Harlequin romance, with hurdle after hurdle succeeded by an eleventh-hour turnaround.
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| 50 |
New York Magazine
A bearable period chick flick with a self-congratulatory “realistic” conceit.
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| 50 |
Washington Post
So I expect the Janeites who love the author will feel themselves ill-served by the film, which appears to have even less basis in fact than "Shakespeare in Love." As for the rest of us, the question is simpler: Is it worth the eight bucks?
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| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Tasha Robinson
The solid cast and honest Austen scholarship make Becoming Jane fitfully entertaining. But it's hard for the film to escape the shadow of Austen's superior talent when it filches so much from her books.
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| 50 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The film tries to squeeze Austen into one of her novels, and the peg doesn't fit.
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| 50 |
The New York Times
The screenplay’s pseudo-Austen tone is so consistent that its lapses into modern romance-novel fantasy threaten to derail the film.
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| 50 |
Chicago Reader
This never rises above a date movie, but it's functionally literate.
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| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Feels like one of those misguided high-school-teacher exercises in making literary history sound contemporary.
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| 50 |
Time
I'll stipulate that in Austen's time spinsterhood was a fate to be strenuously avoided. And being a woman writer was by no means an easy path either. Yet, she embraced it, and the immortal results more than justify a hard choice this film never really explores.
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| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Its weaknesses are clumsy plotting and a less-than-satisfying ending.
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| 50 |
Wall Street Journal
Joanne Kaufman
Austen comes off here more as stenographer than writer. Worse, the movie has Tom Lefroy as her condescending guide.
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| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
Becoming Jane isn't just a soap opera - it's a soft-soap opera.
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| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Toddy Burton
In fictionalizing the story of Austen, the filmmakers didn’t go far enough. Becoming Jane attempts to please the purists and the dreamers, but only results in disappointing both.
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| 40 |
Salon.com
Becoming Jane would have been more honest if it had been called "No Sex in the Country."
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| 40 |
Los Angeles Times
It's neither very original nor very convincing. "Shakespeare in Love" did something similar by casting its writer protagonist as the hero of a story he himself might have written, but Becoming Jane lacks that movie's wit and playfulness.
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