IMDb user comments for
Bright Star (2009) More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 4:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Index

35 comments in total

---

41 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful in the rarest of ways, 10 September 2009

Author: clementinejames from Hollywood, California

With such high hopes for a film, a letdown is always lurking the depths of your mind, but in this case, Campion far exceeded my exceptions. Never could I have predicted the deep, meticulously crafted scenes, led so strongly by Abbie Cornish playing Fanny. The heartwrenching emotion in this movie was unlike any other; there has never been a more real portrayal of the most simplistic yet most common emotions that rule the heart. Campion went far beyond the usual "I am deeply in love; Now I am sad" and truly captured human idiosyncrasy as she delved into the illogical, irrational minds of two young and suddenly in love individuals. At times, it was almost too much to bear due to how intensely palpable the sadness was. To some, certain scenes or moments may have seemed a little longer than usual, but completely necessary is the silence, just as much as the dialogue. This film perfectly embodied how a simple, real, profound story should be told.

If the above were not enough to drive this movie on, the aesthetics were nothing short of spectacular. Each stitch in Fanny's sewing was as beautiful as each scene in a field of lavender or room flooded with butterflies. The magnificent settings, costumes, and natural sunshine pouring into a perfectly decorated room felt not contrived, but simply like a very real dream. As the curtains in Fanny's room got caught in the breeze, it was as if you felt it cooling you down ever so slightly as her content emotion overtook your mind.

Ben Whishaw, too, was superb: perfectly embodying the fragile, wondrous poet that was John Keats, so full of tender emotion. Fanny's younger sister was another beautiful element of this film and really stole the show in her own right with her hilarious and endearing perception of life in general. Each character and each line spoken brought something so special to the story. As much witty humor as there was aching sorrow, this movie is not one to be missed.

---

40 out of 46 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautifully crafted piece of cinema, 19 May 2009

Author: Kenny Evans from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just had the pleasure of watching this at the Grand Lumiere in Cannes FF.

I knew nothing of this film before I went in and it had no names attached which enticed me, is it only me who is sick of 'star vehicles'? It was immediately obvious this film was about John Keats the poet and I was at first a bit perturbed that it may be just another BBC backed period drama with the costume department drawing the bulk of the production budget. However once we had got passed the Victorian family portrait vignetted scenes, the film took on a more deep and involved tone, one that focused on the blossoming of the romance between fanny Brawne and Keats.

Keats friend in prose, Charles Brown came over as an abrasive Scot, keen to ensure that the young girl didn't take Keats eye off of his work. His accent will no doubt prove a problem for some audiences.

The core of this film though must be the performance of Fanny played admirably by Abbie Cornish. The depth and emotion of her portrayal were nothing short of brilliant. She carried herself well but her despair at Keats various departures and her reactions to the low ebbs of his illness were totally believable and added the desired weight to what would have otherwise been another frock show.

Ben Whishaw was brilliant as the frail, emaciated Keats, racked with the tuberculosis that killed his brother and would soon take his own life. One thing I did think whilst watching and that was that we never really saw Keats working away, burning the midnight oil, scratching out his poems, of which he wrote many in a short space of time during the latter part of his short life. We did however see much of his inspiration for his work and of course the title of the film is a poem said to be about the relationship of the night sky to his beloved Fanny.

The photography was brilliant, much use of natural light and we follow the love story from it's awkward start to it's passionate, bitter and sad end. We see Keats friends rallying after the onset of his illness and they decide to send him off to Italy where it is hoped the air might prolong his frail life. Fanny has to endure much of this in silence since she is not properly engaged to Keats and has no real say in his ultimate departure to Italy and is unable to support herself or accompany him.

The relationship is played out very authentically with none of your Mills and Boon clinches or bed scenes. The most we see is a genuine cuddle in front of the fire or the odd tentative kiss. This makes the pairing seem all the more deep and inferred. The climax must be when Fanny finds out the news from Brown that Keats has died in Italy. The take is unusually long but really hits home and even I found myself wiping away the odd tear as Fanny struggled for breath on the stairs.

A beautiful film documenting a little know relationship. We also see how Keats died almost a pauper and yet went on to become probably the best loved and celebrated of English Poets, up there with Byron and Wordsworth. Yes the costumes were faultless but this film belongs to the talents of Cornish and Whishaw as well as the masterful direction of Jane Campion.

KSE.

---

19 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Campion captures the sine curve of romantic experience, 27 September 2009

Author: Chris Knipp from Berkeley, California

Keats's romance with Fanny Brawne and final days are brought to lovely life in Jane Campion's new film, Bright Star. He had TB, though it's never named. When he had become very ill, they sent him to Rome. How foolish! Its climate isn't healthy, though it might have seemed so compared to Hampstead. The house where Keats lived in Hampstead for two years and was in love with Fanny Brawne and wrote some of his has just been restored.

Campion's film may not be a deep investigation of poetical genius, but it's delicate and alive and infinitely touching. There's a delightful litte rosy-cheeked girl, and good use is made of cats. The handsome Regency house was then divided into two, one side occupied by Keats and his landlord and possessive companion Charles Brown, the other by a family called Brawne. He fell in love with Fanny Brawne, and she with him. She is creative in her own way, a brilliant seamstress and designer of clothing who was inventive with fabrics. She didn't know much about poetry but to go by the film, she crammed the classics to be able to talk to Keats and read all his poems and memorized many passages. They recite them back and forth to each other, which may be artificial, but you don't mind, because the poetry is their love, it bloomed through their love and expresses it. Until he began coughing blood and ceased to write because he was suddenly too ill, Keats wrote some of his best work in Hampstead, in love with Fanny Brwwne.

They express their love in long sweet kisses, and walking hand in hand. This too is artificial but a fitting symbolic expression of the ecstasy and swoons of romantic poetry.

Sometimes the final credits define the experience of a film and of its audience. You have to love a film over whose final credits the wispy, winsome Whishaw is heard softly reading the whole of the Ode to a Nightingale, right to the end, and you have to respect an audience in an American cineplex when many of its members sit still to hear Keats's masterpiece down to the final words, "Was it a vision, or a waking dream?/ Fled is that music: – Do I wake or sleep?" Can you imagine having known a person with such extravagant gifts? Campion doesn't get too much in the way of our own imagining. She just lets it happen, lets the cats wander in and out, and thus captures the sine curve of romantic experience, its extremes of joy and despair that are so poignantly focused in the life of this penniless English boy who died at twenty-five, thinking himself a failure, and left behind some of the finest poetry in the language.

Abbie Cornish plays Fanny, Ben Wishaw John Keats, Paul Schneider plays Charles Brown. The little rosy-cheeked sister, Margaret "Toots" Brawne, is played by Edie Martin. Brown is the villain of the piece, because he jealously guards Keants from Fanny, whom he thinks is a silly girl who only sews and flirts. He's getting in the way of romantic love! And Schneider can't help but seem obtrusive here. Brown redeems himself later when, having gotten the sweet Irish servant girl Abigail (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) with child, he does the right thing and marries her.

Fanny's mother says she can't marry Keats, because he has no money, but he proposes, and she accepts, and when the liebestod begins, there's no way of denying his happiness or Fanny's, or the sadness and devotion that made her wear the gold engagement band for the rest of her life. Campion's film offers no profound insights into the poetic process. But how can it? Though Fanny asks Keats to give her "lessons" in poetry, its appreciation, like its creation, must be instinctive and cannot be explained, particularly not the ethereal romantic kind. Wishaw's delicate and enigmatic quality is a satisfying image to hang our fantasies on.

---

18 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
A brighter word than Bright, 23 September 2009

Author: (dirtydee55) from United Kingdom

I saw this film tonight, and in my eyes, it is a perfect film. Beautifully acted by all involved, (several times during the film I found myself thinking 'Abby Cornish is amazing!", despite not being a huge fan before), and stunningly shot, it contains some of the most beautifully cinematic scenes i have ever seen committed to film. Campion does a wonderful job of communicating Fanny' emotional state through the composition, particularly in one scene where the wind is blowing the curtain in her bedroom. The light and colour are fresh and gorgeous and the costumes and design add to the overall piece without being distracting, which is just what you want from a period piece.

But in the end, it is above all a wonderful story, well told. A deeply romantic tale, the story of Fanny and Keats could easily have become a mawkish, overly sentimental piece. But through her wonderfully naturalistic dialogue, her use of humour and light touch, and her restrained story telling (she never lets a scene go on one line too long) Jane Campion has created a heart wrenching film which I cannot fault. The characters are real and fully rounded, you feel the joys and the pain with them, and where I think she really succeeds is by making their love affair extraordinary and yet at the same time deeply ordinary. It stirred up my own personal experiences of love and loss and you would have to have a heart of stone not to shed a tear at the end. Lovely lovely film, and what cinema should be all about.

---

20 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
A thing of beauty is a joy forever, 19 September 2009

Author: trypanophobic34 from Someplace in the world

I just had the pleasure of seeing Bright Star tonight. I was hoping it would be as good as the trailer, and it was. The trailer is not misleading in this sense but a pretty good representation of the movie.

Most of the negative reviews I've read for this have something to do with how the film is "little" or "slow." Rarely, they comment that it's "melodramatic." Which it's NOT by any means. It is not mawkishly sentimental at all. It's not epic, it is small in a way, and there's never any seizing moment of action. That doesn't make it boring; it's engaging throughout.

This is different from any period film I've ever seen, or really, imagined. It's not like typical period pieces in trying to wow you with its aesthetic recreation of the time, it's not so much about the visual splendor, though it looks very lovely and is thoroughly convincing as a representation of that period. It's visually quite different from other period pieces, it has a more realistic and kind of earthy look rather than pastel-colored and with a glow around everything. There are slums and less-than-palatial places. This isn't Pride and Prejudice. Neither does it have sort of a broad, sweeping narrative. At heart it's a deep love story about famed poet John Keats and his love and muse, Franny Brawne, whose relationship was cut short by a tragic death. It delves deeply into the small details of their courtship, and is pretty involved psychologically.

These people are portrayed realistically. Even the more minor characters, they all seem to be real people, with actual personalities, rather than caricatures or types of stuffy Regency people who are preoccupied with propriety and good marriage matches. Fanny's mother is nice, the main issue with her marrying Keats is that he literally can't support her, and the people they know aren't mindlessly concerned about it. They actually have FUN and do more interesting things than stand at ballroom dances and sit at dinner. Who would have thought people in a Regency period movie could actually climb trees, walk in the mud, or do quirky, whimsical things? Their ease and naturalness and relative candor in moving around, interacting with, and talking to each other was refreshing and definitely different from the idea you generally get. And this is the first period piece I've ever, ever seen where anyone has actually picked up and held their pet cat and treated it like you would your pet. You can actually hear it purring, it's a real part of their surroundings. I liked that cat, it was cute.

The dialogue was superb. It wasn't this sloppy, general, or comical/absurd stuff. It was precise, clear, charged with personality, and often beautiful. When you hear the conversations between Fanny and John, it's brilliant, real, and a pleasure. I have never seen such intelligence, subtlety, or elegance in a movie in this way. To hear Fanny respond to something John said, even just a word, as if she were actually thinking about it, as would happen in real life, as if she were an intelligent, feeling, witty person, was so nice. And so DIFFERENT. It's a little hard to explain if you haven't seen it. Suffice it to say, the dialogue is delicate and nuanced. They are articulate but not pretentious, they are sensitive, individual people - not unreal types who don't pick up on details. And it being about Keats, the characters have a lot of literary intelligence. You will enjoy the poetry in the movie.

The acting was great. Keats - I would probably fall in love with him, too. He seems like such a sensitive, romantic, and intelligent guy. Ben Whishaw was perfect for him. And Abbie Cornish as Fanny is wonderful - while not extravagantly gorgeous exactly, her face has such clear features that she has an extraordinary appeal. She is a very striking character, and deeply feeling about Keats. You get a real sense of love, real responses to grief instead of just a pretty swoon. It was a real romance - their tender kiss was beautiful, the things they said to each other, and the things they felt.

This movie is one of those rare films that are almost perfect to me. That doesn't make it my favorite movie, but it means I didn't find much wrong with it. The emotion isn't overwhelming, it's not exactly visceral, but it's moving and penetrating, it has its own style. It's NOT sappy or conventional. The extreme intelligence, realism, and emotional depth of this movie truly set it apart from all others. I heard a review say something like about how it's just about "old British speech and mannerisms," which couldn't be farther from the truth. It is NOT driven by quaintness or generic period speech like other period films. The dialogue is not stiff, pretentious, or artificial, though it's accurate. Sweet, moving, and intelligent, Bright Star has rare depth. It's definitely like no other movie. You should go see it if you think you'd be into it at all, by any stretch. You might not like it - it is rather "slow," but very interesting, at least for me - but it would be a thick or insensitive person indeed who couldn't appreciate it in some way. It's like how Keats described Fanny - "the brightest, most delicate thing."

My favorite quotes are:

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Its loveliness increases. It will never pass into nothingness."

"I almost wish we were butterflies, and lived but three summer days. Three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain."

There are many others, much of Keats' letters to Fanny is so beautiful, but I can't remember them off the top of my head. These are two that appear in the trailer.

---

9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
There is a holiness to the heart's affections … Bright Star, 16 September 2009

Author: babubhaut from buffalo, ny, usa

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Director Jane Campion has always been one of those names who's work I just never had the pleasure of viewing. Finally, a few years back, I had the opportunity to see The Piano almost fifteen years after its release. The chance to watch her new tale of John Keats and love Fanny Brawne at the Toronto International Film Festival couldn't be passed up. Campion herself was there to introduce the Special Presentation screening and spoke about how this story was pure to her. Spanning two years of first love between a beloved poet and his muse, the tale is at the same time both heartwarmingly genuine in its passion and crushingly tragic in its aftermath. She gets the period style just right and brings out two amazing turns from her leads; there are very little, if any, faults with Bright Star.

The story that takes place in the 19th century, a time where a man couldn't even conceive of the notion to marry unless he had a job and influx of money. When the man in question is a poet, you can imagine how hard a feat that can be—his work relying solely on critical acclaim and the success of his books—weak at best if one shop owner is to be believed that he bought twenty to sell and none had left his gaze. Living with a friend and fellow poet, Keats and Charles Armitage Brown find themselves with a lot of time on their hands to craft and create their next best artwork. The two rent space from the Brawne family, well Brown does since he is the one with money, and spend most moments alone behind closed doors seemingly doing very little of anything. Eventually, curiosity, and being fed-up with the sarcastic cruelty of Brown, makes young Fanny decide to meet Keats and gauge his make-up. The man is a virtual recluse except when caring for his deathly ill brother, using all his free time to think and compose. This meeting intrigues them both and is the first step to their budding relationship together, one that sees her critiquing his words before eventually being the subject of them.

Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw, as Brawne and Keats respectively, completely embody their characters and bring them to life on screen. They know their motivations and their place in the world, she falling in love with him, knowing he can't love her due to his place in society's hierarchy, and he falling for her, knowing he can't until he sells his words and earns the right to. Social restraints notwithstanding, the two begin a (not so) secret union of love built on mutual respect and affection. Both very young, this is their first relationship, and one of the greatest details of the film is in portraying it just that way. When Cornish and Whishaw kiss, they do so gently and slow, closed mouth and no movement. They are unsure what to do and that naïve innocence makes the courting so real and effective to watch. Their love is so strong that any adversity is made so much more relevant and all encompassing to their world. When Keats must leave to write abroad, they both write letters, feeling the emptiness of loss until a reply is received. Brawne is so smitten and taken by his words of true love, how he would rather live a lifetime of three days with her as a butterfly than fifty common years weighed down by responsibilities of earth, she begins capturing the flying creatures, making her bedroom a sanctuary for them to fly about.

Two years together and a bond unbreakable, their love is beautiful in its simplicity. Always so pure, (is Campion ever correct on that statement), and childlike in reverence, they want nothing more than to be together. Her parents allow the relationship to continue even though they know he must become a success before letting her leave them and the only real blockade comes from Keats' friend Brown, played wonderfully by Paul Schneider adding the comic relief and a bit of conflict. Wanting the space and time to do his work with Keats, each time Brawne comes by to steal her love away, Brown is always quick with a quip to put her down and complain about the intrusion. But it is a playful relationship they have, as Brawne is never shy to shoot back with a biting word timed to perfection. Schneider infuses the role with so much heart, as he usually does, in his love for Keats and friendship with Fanny. When true tragedy strikes, he becomes a beacon of strength, for the most part, and holds himself responsible in keeping his poet friend safe.

Bright Star is a romance for sure, and its bittersweet ending only bolsters that fact. Nothing can come between the love both Cornish and Whishaw portray in the film. The hardships that hit them make their bond ever stronger, realizing how much they need each other. Risking the rumors and talking behind their backs of a love frowned upon and socially rejected, nothing else matters as they are their own world, living together through it all, even with death knocking at the door. The metaphor of the butterflies resonates so fully when you look at the short time Keats and Brawne have with one another on this earth. They take that time and live without regret, knowing that without the other they would have nothing. Any credibility in his poetry comes from his feelings for her and her purpose for going on lives within him. So subtle and immense in its details, Jane Campion has crafted a romance to engross and affect all those who take the time to watch it. Highly recommended for sure, its simplicity hides its immense emotional worth, making for a film not to be taken lightly.

---

11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Indie Film Perfection, 10 October 2009

Author: J_Trex from Philadelphia

Just saw this at the Ritz East. There wasn't much else playing & this had an 8.1 rating on IMDb so I thought I'd check it out. My instincts were well rewarded because this was one of the best movies I've seen. It was a very well constructed film detailing the relationship of the Romantic poet John Keats with his lover Fanny Brawne, as well as Keats' relationship with his friend and patron Charles Brown.

The actors were relatively unknown to me. I'm pretty sure I've seen Paul Schneider, who played Charles Brown, in other films. But Abbie Cornish, who played Fanny, and Ben Whishaw, who played Keats, are new to me. They were great. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job.

Jane Campion, the Director, brought the period to life. And the character development was outstanding. The viewer really felt a connection to the characters in the film, even minor characters, like Fanny's mother & siblings, were highly engaging. Fanny's younger sister was the most adorable little girl in film since Gretl in "The Sound of Music".

The music and mood of the movie fit the period and subject perfectly. I was mesmerized from the beginning to the end of this great film. I think I'll go back and see it again. It was that good.

The movie ended, while the credits rolled, with Whishaw reciting "Ode to a Nightingale" set to classical music. The audience stayed up until the last credit rolled. It was a nice touch to finish the movie with.

This movie will likely be the definitive film about Romantic poets. Maybe Campion will direct a movie about Byron in Greece or Shelley in Italy. One thing is for sure, she set the bar pretty high with "Bright Star".

---

11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
This film is a masterpiece., 5 October 2009

Author: vmariposa from Santa Barbara

Each scene, every word uttered by the characters was so beautifully and often wittily crafted that I couldn't help but wish I lived in such a lush world, full of idealism and love of literature, not to mention people who cared about one another with such kindness and unabashed concern. Many of the scenes evoked the sixteenth century Dutch masters, whom Jane Campion may have used to set an authentic tone for her masterpiece. John Keats, the most intensely romantic of the Romantic poets (although Shelley and Lord Byron did their best) could not have received a fairer treatment, plus he was superbly acted by Ben Whislaw; I fell in love with the entire cast. This film lives up to its potential, and if you know anything about the life of Keats, you realize that it is a Titanic sort of plot, because the ship must go down. Yet my sadness was only that I have to live in the current world so dominated by name brands and nonsense rather than the fine stitchery and wit of Fanny Brawne. Drag your husband, significant other and everyone you know to see this film!! I've seen it twice!!

---

10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
"Byron and Shelley and Keats, were a trio of lyrical treats." -Dorothy Parker, 9 October 2009

Author: Milostiva from United States

Never truer words were spoken- Where words fail, poetry triumphs. Bright Star, is Jane Campion's romantic ode to John Keats. She conveys desire in an ode, consummation in a sonnet. Intimate as a whisper, immediate as a blush, the film positively palpitates with the sensual and spiritual.

There is the ethereal Keats (Ben Whishaw), awakened as from a reverie by the spirited Fanny (Abbie Cornish). It is not love at first sight. She is a seamstress of considerable originality (look at her three-ply strawberry collar!), but Keats has eyes only for nature, not for clothes. He is a poet of controversial reputation, just listen to his allusions, but Brawne has ears only for the language of flirtation, not of verse. Poetry, she tells him, is a strain.

As Campion tells it, in imagery as breathtaking as that of any Romantic ode, when the two are together, colors are more vivid, smells more pungent, feelings more profound. Too often figures in costume dramas are arranged like statuary in a museum. Campion sees the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Together, they flourish; apart, they languish. And, as in any great romance, there are many forces driving them apart. Chief among them are Keats' ill health and abject poverty. Close behind is Keats' meddlesome friend and patron, Charles Brown (Paul Schneider, wonderful as this sarcastic and self-important swan), who rents quarters from Brawne's widowed mother (Kerry Fox). At first, Keats and Brown live next door to the Brawnes. Then the poets share a house with Fanny's family, bringing the lovers in even closer proximity.

Campion, who both wrote and directed, tells their story soaringly. The filmmaker's offbeat dialog has a unique cadence, and her oblique compositions observe Archibald MacLeish's faith that "a poem should not mean, but be." Through Campion's eyes, there is never the sense that Keats expressed to Brawne poetically what he could not physically. Here is a movie that believes that verse and image are physical expressions. In a word, it's ravishing.

---

10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A perfect cinematic experience-a poem in film-probably the best pic of the year, 26 September 2009

Author: zken from United States

Sitting in a packed cinema in Mill Valley, CA watching this film demonstrates that the film experience still exists and that great films can be made. This is a great movie experience because it is so gentle, simple and direct-no stunts-no noise-no robots-just a piece of history recreated with tenderness and poetic truth. Jane Champion shows how film can tell a story without interference and how the elements of film can join together to open a world of wonder and song.

The film is visual and very moving without being maudlin or melodrama. It also refuses to dwell on the sensational, even the creative part of the story.

The viewer is left inspired to explore the creation of Keats, and no wonder. Such an introduction to a life would leave anyone hungry for more.

The performances are enchanting and almost mystical in scope. The cinematography is just inspired. So this is it-turn off your lap top and go to a show.....You will remember this for a very long time.

---

---

Page 1 of 4:

[1] [2] [3] [4]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot synopsis	Ratings	Awards
External reviews	Official site	Plot keywords
Main details	Your user comments	Your vote history