Becoming JaneMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Becoming Jane."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 55 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
12 OK for kids 12+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    If one were to fuse the literary sensibility of Jane Austen with the fanciful imaginative license of "Shakespeare in Love," what would emerge would likely be the charming tale Becoming Jane. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Derek Elley

    An ersatz "Pride and Prejudice" in all but name, Becoming Jane is a finely tooled Brit-lit costumer that, like Anne Hathaway's flawless accent as the young Austen, lacks only that final convincing 5%. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    Anne Hathaway's Jane is headstrong and clever, balanced and true. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Becoming Jane has a burnished feminine sadness, and the director, Julian Jarrold, gives it a creamy-dark visual flow. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    The way all of this plays out is acted warmly by the principals, and Eigil Bryld's photography (of Ireland) makes England look breathtakingly green and inviting. The director, Julian Jarrold ("Kinky Boots" and the TV version of "White Teeth") is comfortable with the material, and it is comfortable with him. Read full review

  • 50
    Wall Street Journal |

    Austen comes off here more as stenographer than writer. Worse, the movie has Tom Lefroy as her condescending guide. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    So I expect the Janeites who love the author will feel themselves ill-served by the film, which appears to have even less basis in fact than "Shakespeare in Love." As for the rest of us, the question is simpler: Is it worth the eight bucks? Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Its weaknesses are clumsy plotting and a less-than-satisfying ending. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    The screenplay's pseudo-Austen tone is so consistent that its lapses into modern romance-novel fantasy threaten to derail the film. Read full review

  • 40
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    It's neither very original nor very convincing. "Shakespeare in Love" did something similar by casting its writer protagonist as the hero of a story he himself might have written, but Becoming Jane lacks that movie's wit and playfulness. Read full review

View more reviews for Becoming Jane on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 12+ A witty, winning Austen bio for tweens and older.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film is a delightful exercise in imagination. No one truly knows whether Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy shared a grand passion, but the movie makes a great case for it. It's a romantic, often funny tale that tweens and teens will enjoy, though there are parts that could prove dicey for younger audiences, including a sexual interlude between Jane's parents and a brazen flirtation between an older woman and a younger man. (The banter may also go a little too fast for them to understand.) The language is sometimes complicated for younger audiences ("impecunious"), but it's fairly innocuous, except for one expletive ("s--t").
  • Families can talk about why Tom's uncle thinks Jane isn't worthy of marriage and why they couldn't simply decide to be together. What standards were in place at the time? Do these requirements seem cruel or unjust?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: For the most part, everyone's on his or her best behavior, but there's a lot of pressure from society to act in certain ways which Austen views criticall and which gives rise to prejudices (a rich matron looks down on those without money and treats them with disdain) and acts of rebellion (Lefroy, at least in the beginning of the movie, drinks and fights in bars).
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: A few characters box in a bar; basically, they brawl while others bet on their match, and the results are quite bloody.
  • sex false3 Sex: Save for one humorous but surprisingly risqué scene in which Jane's father hints at performing oral sex on his wife under the covers, the movie is quite chaste. Some kissing and lots of flirting; an older woman seduces a younger man, who's all too willing to return the favor. Also, Lefroy and his friends frequent a brothel, where women revealing much cleavage proposition men.
  • language false0 Language: Mostly clean, though "s--t" is uttered once, and there are a few "dammits" sprinkled in. Also, some women are referred to as "whores."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some drinking in bars; wine for toasting and dinners.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

4.0

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Maggie Smith slices everyone to ribbons … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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