Embodying the early life of Jane Austen, a young beautiful and smart writer, who throughout her early life, has a critical thought and lifestyle, as she only wants to marry for love, unlike other girls at that time, who only marry for being financially supported, and when she falls in love with a young handsome Irish lawyer named Tom Lefroy, everything changes.
With a spot-on accent and altogether charming performance, Hathaway makes another convincing statement that she has grown, as a woman and as an actress.
Ebert & Roeper
August 14, 2007
Not only is that a huge stretch of the facts, it makes for a dull and overly familiar melodrama.
Movie Views
February 19, 2008
Even though it looked great and was moderately engaging, something was also always missing.
This never rises above a date movie, but it's functionally literate (the lovers have some pleasant banter about the realistic merits of Tom Jones) and features a fine supporting turn from Ian Richardson.
Director Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots) struck a unique and lovely tone, managing to maintain a conventional Merchant-Ivory type look but successfully infusing it with some rather modern humor--Hathaway and McAvoy verbally sparring like an 18th century Trac
"The reality of love's disappointments enriches the film's heroine, who never married in real life, and brings a 200-year-old figure into living focus."
