Bright Star Reviews

I have always been interested in Jane Campion’s work so I was really eager to check her last movie. Well, to be honest, even though I enjoyed this flick, I can’t say it was really amazing though. Indeed, the plot was pretty much standard for a costume drama (a young man and woman are passionately in love but he doesn’t have any money to marry her and, on top of that, he gets pretty sick…). It was really cliché and I can’t tell you how many times I have seen movies with a similar plot. Furthermore, I wasn’t really convinced by Abbie Cornish. I mean, she looked really pretty and her performance was not bad at all but there was not a single moment during which I really believed she was this character, living in that place during that particular time period. For me, she was still a modern girl from our time, not this character. Still, in spite of these flaws, I really liked this movie anyway. Above all, I thought the directing was really exquisite and pretty much flawless. Indeed, the way it was shot, the composition of those shots, the pacing, it was just amazing and quite mesmerizing to watch. From this perspective, it is probably one of the best costume dramas I have seen. Furthermore, even if I mentioned before that the story was not really original, it was still a fascinating love story full of passion and I really believed in this romantic relationship. Finally, even though I wasn’t so sure about Abbie Cornish, the rest of the cast was really spot on and gave some very solid performances. To conclude, even though it is not a masterpiece, it remains a very well made costume drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.