Blu-ray Review: Becoming Jane
By
Jon Liu Video Format: 2.35:1 1080p
Audio Formats: English PCM 5.1, English, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, James Cromwell, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith
Directed by: Jullian Jarrold
Release Date: February 12, 2008
General
“Jane Austen’s most extraordinary romance was her own.”
Romance-writer, Jane Austen (Hathaway), is renowned for her enchanting love stories, but little did we know her stories were influenced by her own experiences. Becoming Jane tells the story of how the famous writer came to be – love trials and all. As she discovers the one she loves, she realizes how difficult it can be to make things work. Like her novels, Austen goes through the same tribulations as her fictional characters, which helps gives us more detailed insight into the life of this famous author.
Tech Specs
Video: Visually, this movie was very nice to watch. I really don’t have anything to complain about in terms of the video quality of this movie. There is plenty of detail and clarity to the picture and it remains pretty consistent throughout the film. Colors and Black levels were both very rich, but don’t expect to see many eye-popping colors from this period piece. That being said, the overall quality of the transfer lends a hand to the wonderful landscape shots.
Audio: The audio mix has a decent amount of subtle surround activity throughout the movie. I was not anticipating the added ambiance, nor for this type of movie would one really expect it, but it definitely helped give this dialog driven track some extra life. There were a couple of instances where the dialog was somewhat difficult to understand, partially due to the amount of background noise, but I think some of it could be attributed to the accents and manner of speaking. Overall, a better than average audio track for a romance movie.
Extras
Several extras are included in this release including a feature-length commentary, 13 deleted/extended scenes, a making-of featurette, and a pop-up trivia that coincides with the film.
Menus/Navigation
The menus are very straightforward and nothing out of the ordinary.
Overall Impressions
I found this movie very hard to judge. In terms of a simple romantic movie, I think it does fairly well. But, I find it hard to say it was a great romantic movie. It’s very difficult not to compare this movie to the most recent Pride and Prejudice movie. Comparing the two directly shows that Becoming Jane falls short. Had I watched Becoming Jane without thinking of this comparison I might have enjoyed it more. Thankfully I found enough emotional connection to each of the characters to rate this as a "pretty good" movie. If you are interested, definitely give this a rent.
