It is 1818 in Hampstead Village on the outskirts of London. Poet Charles Brown lives in half of a house and the Dilkes family lives in the other half. Because of an association with the Dilkes, the fatherless Brawne family knows Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown and the Brawne's eldest daughter Fanny don't like each other? She thinks he is arrogant and rude!! He thinks she is a pretentious flirt? She only knows how to sew but she does that very well. She makes all her own fashionable clothes. She also voices opinions on subjects that she knows nothing about? Insecure struggling poet John Keats comes to live with his friend Mr. Brown. Miss Brawne and Mr. Keats have a mutual attraction to each other. Their relationship is developing slowly. The reason for slowness is that Mr. Brown does whatever he can to keep them apart? Other obstacles also facing the couple include their eventual overwhelming passion for each other. It is clouding their view of what the other person does. Plus, there is Mr. Keats' struggling career and it offers him very little in the way of monetary gain!!
This moving period romance is tame on the surface and there's almost no violence, sex, strong language or other iffy content. But, it has an undercurrent of sexual longing fueled by social barriers that complicate the characters' ability to be with the people they love. Though the story is told with a great deal of grace, it does have a bit of grit. First, there's the consumption illness that finally claims poet John Keats. Its progression is delicately but truthfully depicted. Also, Keats' best friend is dismissive of those with no interest in poetry. That refers to Fanny, she is passionate about sewing instead. There's some discussion about Fanny's virginity but the conversations are oblique. There is only kissing and hand-holding shown on screen. 3* (I liked this movie)
119 min Biography directed and written by Jan Campion with Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox, Edie Martin, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Claudie Blakley, Gerard Monaco, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Samuel Roukin, Amanda Hale, Lucinda Raikes, Samuel Barnett, Johnathan Aris.
Note: Imdb 6.9* out of 1* with 14,362 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 82% with 177 critic reviews 68% with 10,000+ audience scores, Metacritic 81 out of 100 with 34 critic reviews 7.2 out of 10 with 92 user scores, Roger Ebert 3 1/2*, The Guardian 5* Peter Bradshaw, Commonsense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 12+, 4* out of 5*, 1* language, drinking, drugs & smoking, 2* sex, 3* positive messages, positive role models, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 655 reviews.
Special Note: John Keats' poems used in the film are: Endymion, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be, The Eve of St Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Bright Star. This film had a shooting for one day in Rome. Keats' funeral procession was the last scene to be filmed and the only scene of the film not shot in the UK. This exterior location, in Piazza di Spagna, is the actual residence Keats stayed and where he died. It now houses the Keats - Shelley House museum. The main star of the film, Ben Whishaw met his husband, composer Mark Bradshaw while both were working on this film. They were civilly married in 2012. The Hyde House and Estate in Hyde Bedfordshire substituted for the Keats House in Hampstead. Director Jane Campion decided that the Keats House (also known as Wentworth Place) was too small and "a little bit too fusty".
Mistakes: When Abigail shows off her new baby to the Brawne family, Brown goes to talk to Fanny in the next room. Abigail comes in holding her baby and the baby's head is rested in the crook of her arm. In the next shot when she turns and leaves, the baby is moved so the baby's head is on the opposite side of her. When Keats looks out his window at Fanny, she walks to the window, pulls out a letter from her dress and holds it to the window. In the next shot, she pulls the letter from her dress again? When Severn drinks from his teacup, he spills tea into his saucer. In the next shot, the same sequence is unintentionally repeated from a different angle.
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