'Bright Star'

'Bright Star' (PG) **1/2

Writer: Jane Campion based loosely based on Andrew Morton's biography "Keats"
Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerrie Fox

I love poetry and I love trying to write poetry but love poems are hard to create because of the passion and dedication that has to come deep from the heart. A good woman that inspires you would be a good start and I can see why the poet John Keats would be inspired by Fanny the main character here played wonderfully by breakout actress Abbie Cornish. Fanny and Keats brief love affair is directed by Jane Campion who always has strong female characters at the center of her films. Campion does a good job of capturing this friendship that turns into an everlasting love. There were no letters or material left over from that time so Campion's job is to create Fanny from scratch. She does a great job and she is helped immensely by Abbie Cornish who you might hear a lot from in the future. Catch her performance in "Stop/Loss" and then this movie and you will definitely see her acting range and intelligence with the two performances. She can look different in every shot from being naturally beautiful, plain to captivating from one moment to the next. Ben Whishaw is also very good as Keats and Campion knows how to place her camera and capture this romance effectively. She gets great performances and if you love poetry you will get involved with this passionate romance.

So why didn't I love this movie? I wanted to but I really wasn't moved until the last half hour even though I loved watching Cornish. I felt the movie came alive at the end but I thought it was cold and and a little too proper in the first half. I felt the passion of the romance didn't kick in for me until the end. That doesn't mean that the movie fails because my reasons for the disconnect might be my own hang ups. First I know that their relationship starts out as a friendship and blooms into a passionate love affair but I still thought the movie could have been more passionate in the set up. I am also used to Campion's eccentric style and energy like she accomplished on "The Piano" and "Sweetie". I felt that she was too constrained and muted here which is fine but not what I expected from her. I like when a director tries to branch out and expand on her style but here I think it needed more of her offbeat passion. I never though felt an emotional connection to the material like I have with other fine movies about poets. Though Abbie Cornish is amazing here capturing the admiration of Keats that turns from friendship to an undying love that knows no boundaries. Keats and Fanny's brief but passionate love might have been short but it had more depth than most longer loves. I just wanted to feel more here and I just didn't feel connected. I must add that Paul Schneider is excellent as Keats friend Charles Brown. Schneider has been in small parts in numerous films and based on this performance I would like to see more of him in the future.. This movie is a good rental on a big screen TV when it comes on DVD.