""Bright Star"" satisfies a hunger we may not have known we had: a hunger for an elegantly done, emotional love story. The passion on screen is burning and heatwarming and continues after you leave the theater.
The affections in question are between John Keats, perhaps the greatest of England's 19th-century Romantics, and Fanny Brawne, literally the girl next door. They met in 1818, when Keats was 23 and Brawne 18, a little more than two years before his tragic death from tuberculosis. The intensity of their connection brought forth some of Keats' greatest work.
Essential in this was the superb work of Australia's Abbie Cornish (Brawne) and Britain's Ben Whishaw (Keats), whom writer and director Jane Campion (""The Piano"") boldly cast as inseparable lovers before they even met each other. The chemistry between the two scorches on the screen.
This potential romance makes no one happy, not Brawne's mother, who worries that the penniless Keats cannot marry without funds, and not Scotsman Charles Brown, a friend and colleague of Keats, who is frankly jealous. But Fanny is feisty enough to follow her heart. Keats draws inspiration from Fanny; his delicate health improves when she is around.
Nothing, aside from Keats' increasingly severe illness, can keep these two apart, especially when circumstances have them sharing the same house and, in a classic moment, simultaneously touching the thin bedroom wall that keeps them apart.
The film acknowledges the evolution of affection between two characters with not much more than youth in common. Fanny reads Keats' poetry ""to see if he's an idiot"" but can't puzzle out its subtleties. Keats is mystified by her announcement that her ball gown boasts the only triple-tiered mushroom collar in all of Hampstead.
Still, their mutual attraction is undeniable.
True to the norms and morality of the day, the lovers sublimate their passion into longing and passionate correspondence. The film delights in its literary heritage, using quotations from Keats' work throughout, including passages from the poignant letters he wrote to Fanny when they were apart.
""Bright Star"" is a tale of hope in its finest form. The love between Fanny and Keats crosses seasons, stands the test of time and lives on through Keats' powerful poems. This film is one to see for poetry fans as well as those who appreciate love. ""Bright Star"" enlivens the soul and undoubtedly conjures emotion.
Grade: A
