Review: Miss Austen Regrets

I had heard about this a while ago, but I didn't watch it until yesterday. I know only a little bit about Jane Austen's life, and I hadn't really seen a biopic of Jane Austen (excepting a couple of scenes from Becoming Jane), so this would be the first movie about Jane Austen that I have seen all the way through.

Poster

Synopsis
Miss Austen Regrets chronicles the later life of Jane Austen and her relationship with her niece, Fanny Austen-Knight. Jane councils Fanny on her choice of husband while Fanny tries to get the romantic side of Jane out.

Characters
There are a couple of actors/actresses that you may recognize in Miss Austen Regrets. Olivia Williams (Jane Austen) was seen in Emma (1997) as Jane Fairfax. Hugh Bonneville (Rev. Brook Bridges) was seen in Daniel Deronda as Mr. Grandcourt and also in Downton Abbey as Robert Crawley, Lord of Grantham. Phyllida Law (Mrs. Austen) was also seen in Emma (1996) as Mrs. Bates and is also known as the mother of actresses Emma Thompson and Sophie Thompson. Greta Scacchi (Cassandra Austen) was seen in Emma (1996) as Mrs. Weston.

Jane at an evening with her friends. She seemed to have
been holding a glass of wine through at least half of the movie.

I really didn't like the way Jane Austen was portrayed in here. I know only a little about Jane Austen's life (I haven't actually read the letters that she has written to her sister, Cassandra, or to Fanny), but I never pictured her as someone who indulged too much in wine, flirted with nearly any man in her path, or was constantly in ill-humor. It seemed that some of the characteristics that she had in this movie were what she condemned in her novels: the real Jane Austen ridiculed the flirtatious behaviors of Lydia Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and of Isabella Thorpe in Northanger Abbey and would have most likely have looked down upon women walking around at night, drinking wine, and looking into windows from bushes outside. Her sour attitude in here could almost resemble Mary Bennet's in Pride and Prejudice. The screenplay writers and producers were probably trying to make her appear more human, but there are other ways of doing that and keeping her in "sync" with what she wrote and believed. I'm not convinced in this portrayal of Jane Austen

The whole story focused more on Jane's relationship with Fanny, her niece, rather than Cassandra, her sister. I would have liked to see more of Cassandra in this movie; she was in there for a couple of scenes, but not nearly as many as she should have. I didn't like how the Jane/Fanny relationship was portrayed: it seemed like they were reduced to a couple of giggling girls: I really couldn't take either one of them seriously after a while, especially Fanny. Fanny seemed overly romantic and emotional where it got to the point that it was just irritating.

Jane (foreground) with Fanny and Cassandra in the background.

Scenery
The scenery was nice. The outdoor scenes look lovely, and the indoor scenes in the houses were nice too. There was one scene that had a blue overtone when Jane Austen was running through London: I didn't like that they had the blue overtone. But Miss Austen Regrets does afford some nice views of the English countryside.

Costumes

Fanny and Jane traveling. Here Jane is wearing the turban
that she wears for a good portion of the movie.

I liked the costumes. I noticed that Jane had more bold colors than Fanny, who wore mostly white and lighter colors. I think that in the Regency Era, older women wore more bolder colors, while younger women wore lighter colors. Jane's gowns were very nice. Her dresses consisted mostly of jumpers with gauze sleeves. I wasn't particularly fond of a turban (I think it was a turban) that Jane wore for a lot of the movie. Overall, this movie could give many costumers an idea of what style of Regency dresses they would like to make.


Overall:1.5/5
I'll admit the costume and scenery were nice, and the music was quite tolerable enough (though it really didn't stick with me long enough), but I am not convince with this portrayal of Jane Austen. If seemed as if she had the bad qualities of her characters that she created. If a movie can't get the main character right, it doesn't have a good chance of succeeding.

Miss Austen Regrets is available with the DVD version of Sense and Sensibility (2008). It runs for 90 minutes.