Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-10
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Like Molière, which was released in cinemas soon after, Becoming Jane isn't a conventional biopic. Instead, Julian Jarrold (White Teeth) expands on events from Jane Austen's life that may have shaped her fiction. To his credit, he doesn't stray too far from the facts. In 1795, 20-year-old Jane (Anne Hathaway with believable British accent) is an aspiring author. Her parents (Julie Walters and James Cromwell) married for love, and money is tight. They hope to see their youngest daughter make a more lucrative match, and there's a besotted local, Mr. Wisley (Laurence Fox, son of actor James Fox), who would be happy to oblige. Unfortunately, Jane isn't interested. Then, she meets brash law student Tom (The Last King of Scotland's James McAvoy), while he's staying with relatives in rural Hampshire.

As in many Austen novels, it isn't love at first sight--but rather irritation. Just as affection begins to bloom, Tom has to return to London, and Wisley, whose financial prospects are superior, proposes. To complicate matters, Tom's uncle (Ian Richardson in his final performance) disapproves of the outspoken young lady just as much as Wisley's aunt (Maggie Smith, lending the proceedings some subtle humor). Had Austen penned the script, Tom and Wisley would be combined into one person, but life doesn't work that way--and nor does Becoming Jane. Though Jarrold's effort may not be as swoon-worthy as Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice, it remains true to the spirit of the author's work. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Special Features

5.1 Dolby
Behind the Scenes
Regency Dance Featurette
Hair, Make-up & Costume Design Featurette
Filming the Cricket Scene
Filming the Boxing Scenes
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer
Commentary
Photogallery

Synopsis
Like her heroines, Jane Austen must choose between love and money in this romance based on the life of the author. Anne Hathaway (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) is the PRIDE AND PREJUDICE scribe, while James McAvoy (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) is her suitor. Focusing on the novelist’s early life and passionate love affair with Tom Lefroy and her refusal to marry Mr Wisely – a young aristocrat her parents are courting for her hand.

Customer Reviews

Worth watching
This was much better than I thought it would be having read that the story didn't hold together and wasn't based on any real fact. If it was intended as a love story then it's ok. Are biographical films ever based truly on reality? Julie Walters is excellent as Jane's mother and thanks to another reviewer for mentioning where I'd seen Anne Hathaway before.

I'm not keen on Jane Austen's novels (forced to read them at school), except perhaps, "Northanger Abbey", for which the recent TV adaptation was excellent. "Becoming Jane" has more depth than was portrayed in the poor cinema trailer. It's not as good as say, "Miss Potter" but worth a watch on a rainy Sunday evening.

Great
OK, it's not an exact account of Austens life, but if you just look at it as a film, not a factual documenturey, it's a very good film, with a very touching ending. Lovely scenerey and the acting is very good. Especially from James McAvoy (plus his eyes are gorgeous all through it!). I'm a big fan of Austens work and I thought this was a great film, well worth a watch.

Not as bad as some of the reviews... but not Jane Austen either
This is a very odd film as it can't quite make up its mind whether it's a biography on the real Jane Austen or whether it's a compilation of her books, and the merging of the two as if everything she ever wrote was rooted in her own experience instead of in her imagination make it both plodding and quite dubious.

As other reveiwers have said, too much of the plot, characters and scenes are lifted from the two most popular of her books due to film/TV versions (Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility) which makes this both derivative and uninspiringly predictable.

There is absolutely no sense of period which the BBC usually does so well: so here Jane wanders around a ball and into the garden alone; she, her brother and his lover all go and stay with her potential husband's uncle/patron; and after calling off her elopement (JA eloping!) she travels back home all by herself. Also all the discussion about women 'supporting themselves with their pen' is just ludicrous in this time period: even women who wrote made hardly any money out of it (and I don't think JA did, or certainly not much). And as for that absolutely ludicrous cricket scene - even Jennifer Ehle's brilliant and accurate Elizabeth Bennett would never have considered that!

I didn't think Anne Hathaway is as wooden as some other reviewers here but she's just far too sweet and wholesome not to mention pretty to be a good Jane who is supposed to have been far spikier even at a young age.

So an ok film to pass a couple of hours but forget that this is supposed to be jane Austen and you'll probably enjoy it far more.