Bright Star

Elaborate costumes, gorgeous cinematography, British accents, a doomed romance—on paper, writer and director Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” contains all the elements of an effective period romance. And yet the film—which centers on the burgeoning love between Romantic poet John Keats and his neighbor Fanny Brawne—proves disappointing, permanently handicapped by its lack of dramatic tension.

Ben Whishaw (“Brideshead Revisited”) and Abbie Cornish (“Stop-Loss”) are wholly convincing as the movie’s tragic couple, but that is in some ways precisely the problem. Their strong bond is never counterbalanced by a force of sufficient magnitude which could plausibly stifle it. Because the viewer is not presented with any roadblock that should be capable of irreparably harming their relationship, the fact that the two lovers are fated to never consummate their love weakens the film’s dramatic drive.

At the film’s start, the primary source of conflict stems from Keats’ roommate, supporter, and friend, fellow poet Charles Armitage Brown. Brown, played with gusto by Paul Schneider (“Lars and the Real Girl”), disapproves of the relationship between Keats and Brawne and actively attempts to dissuade his friend from pursuing her. This conflict climaxes in a heated argument between the three parties after Brown delivers a mock valentine to Brawne.

Had Campion chosen to focus solely on this triangular relationship, perhaps elaborating on the reasons why Brown was so staunchly opposed to his friend’s relationship, she could have composed an engaging romance. However, almost directly following the aforementioned argument, the primary source of conflict clumsily segues into Keats’ financial situation. This dilemma only manifests itself through Brawne’s mother and her high-society friends, who make a few mildly disapproving comments about Keats. With the introduction of this subplot, Brown’s coarse wit disappears from the film, eliminating one of its sole sources of entertainment.

Campion—who won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for 1993’s “The Piano”—displays a dependence on emotionality that harms the film’s narrative flow. The middle section of “Bright Star” becomes an exercise in tedium, as the film first shows the happiness of the young couple, then the sadness Brawne feels when Keats must visit the countryside for financial reasons, then the joy she experiences when he writes her a letter, then the sadness she suffers when time passes with no word. There is no cohesive narrative structure to support Brawne’s baffling shifts in extreme emotions, and as such the film is reduced to a series of dramatically disparate moments.

Moreover, the plot’s implications become exceedingly confusing, as the viewer simply cannot reconcile Brawne’s excessive declarations of love—at one point she compares her feelings when she is not with Keats to suffocation—with the poet’s apparent disinterest. Does Keats simply not feel the same way as Brawne? Does the poet’s loyalty or fiscal obligation to Brown simply supersede his love? Sadly, this confusion seems entirely unintentional.

The film’s finale only exacerbates these narrative faults. After falling ill, Keats is instructed to leave the country for gentler climes. His reasons for leaving his “true love” behind remain unconvincing. The only answer the film provides is that the poet feels indebted to his friends for paying for his voyage. The lovers’ teary goodbye is therefore marked by the same frustrating passivity characteristic of the film as a whole.

As noted, “Bright Star” is not a wholly disappointing experience. The actors uniformly deliver strong performances, only occasionally lapsing into facile sentimentalism. The cinematography is especially charming, and silent sequences highlighting the splendor of the countryside and the complexity of Brawne’s needlework are arrestingly beautiful. Poetry buffs will also likely delight in hearing Keats’ work in a different context; it is particularly interesting to hear his theories on poetry and the role of the poet as delivered to Brawne in a flirtatious tutoring session.

“Bright Star” is a frustrating film. Though it is technically proficient, its narrative failures make the film a chore to sit through. After all, if the two lovers do not think their love worth fighting for, why should a viewer want to watch their tragedy unfold?

—Staff writer Bram A. Strochlic can be reached at bstrochl@fas.harvard.edu.