AS PORTRAYED IN Jane Campion’s Bright Star, John Keats
(Ben Whishaw)—degree of talent not withstanding—is
virtually interchangeable with any modern-day, slacking, would-be
musician/artist/DJ/graphic novelist you might meet at the nearest
Stumptown Coffee. The thin frame, angelic face, shabby/debonair
wardrobe, and ear-framing hair translate as easily to present-day
fashion as does Keats’ chronic under-employment. In order to enjoy
Bright Star‘s treacly but pure-hearted romance, it’s necessary
to overcome the utter refusal of this central character to lift a
finger, even in the aid of his own interests.
True to historical events as it may be, it’s incredibly difficult to
sympathize with Keats’ heart-wrenching ineligibility to marry his true
love—Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). The only hurdle is his lack of
funds, yet he considers it an earnest day’s work looking for
inspiration by way of dozing on the couch or drifting through a flower
garden. It’s hard not to be reminded of the well-documented
inspirations of manual labor, not to mention the visceral motivational
benefits of the occasional well-timed ass kicking. Brawne, for her part
in this impossible pairing, has at least the monolith of patriarchy to
blame for her inability to control the situation.
Placing all practicality and problem-solving ability aside,
Bright Star is a rapturously repressed celebration of unrequited
longing that belongs particularly to the fusty annals of British
literary history. In love for the three years preceding Keats’ death at
25 of tuberculosis, the poet’s affair with Brawne was defined by long
absences, dramatic gestures, earnest written exchanges, and bursts of
tears. Drawn in the manner of a Jane Austen character, Brawne as the
lippy, fashion-obsessed love interest is warmly relatable, and takes
home the prize for coolest dramatic gesture when she begins farming
butterflies in her bedroom.
For all its stealthy pacing and demanding tantrums, Bright
Star is admirable in its own extremity of being: a long interplay
of delicious tension to be appreciated by those sensitive to the
emotional depths of patience.