Blu-ray Review: Becoming Jane

THE MOVIE: 3 1/2 stars out of 5

Becoming Jane is based on the book of the same name and chronicles the story of the late teenage years of Jane Austen, who created modern English prose and who has written some of the best selling novels of all time. The film stars Anne Hathaway as Jane Austin along with James McAvoy as her love interest and co-stars James Cromwell, Julie Walters and Maggie Smith. While the acting in this film is very good, I found the narrative to be a bit on the slow side. In other words, the film dragged along too much. For those of you who have taken the time to watch Pride and Prejudice, you will recognize many of the characters in Jane Austen’s life that formed the basis of such legendary characters in that novel as Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. While this film is very interesting in giving us a glimpse into how and why Jane Austen wrote her novels the way she did, the screenplay is not quite up to the level of Jane Austen’s writing or that of Pride and Prejudice and suffers in comparison. While this film is not for everyone, I would recommend it for fans of Jane Austen’s novels and fans of the movies based upon them.

THE VIDEO: 4 stars out of 5

Encoded with AVC and presented in is original aspect ratio of 2:35:1, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed the video quality of this release. On the plus side, the film has very good detail. On the downside, the film has very muted colors although the color that is present is very natural looking. My biggest complaint is what I would describe as poor black levels. The weakness in black levels could be seen best in the level of the brightness in the dark scenes. There is a scene at night in a garden where instead of being black, the shadows had a very whitish look to them which really detracted from the look of the image. It should be noted that I did not see the film in theaters and it is possible that this is the intended look of the film. If it is, it is a mistake IMHO as it detracts greatly from the look of the film. I also found this excessive brightness in night time interior scenes as well. I was beginning to wonder for a moment if there was a problem with my display. This film would have qualified for a much higher score with better black levels.

THE AUDIO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5

Presented with an uncompressed PCM track at 48 kHz/24 bit, the audio on this release is good but not near the level of the previously reviewed Gone Baby Gone. Dialogue is good, being clear, distinct and well placed in the mix. However, it lacks the fullness and richness of the best releases, sounding a tad on the thin side. As one would expect, the film is very front heavy and does not present a very immersive sound field. However, other than this overall thinness in the sound, the overall sound if the film is still good. Particularly impressive is the sound of the music score which sounds very good with an open and spacious sound with good bass. While the sound of the film did not detract from my viewing pleasure, I would have preferred a fuller, smoother and more dynamic audio presentation, such as was the case with the HD DVD presentation of Pride & Prejudice reviewed previously, which trumps the audio here on every level.

IN CONCLUSION

This is a film that will be best enjoyed by fans of Jane’s Austen’s books and prior films such as Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense & Sensibilities and Emma, all available on home video. For the rest, I would rate this release as a rental.

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