Bright Star (2009)

Directed by Jane Campion, who gave us the 1993 gem “The Piano” and has done few great films since, “Bright Star” tells the absolute, ultimate, momma-of-all Tale of Doomed Romance. Tweens and other gals who get weepy at “Twilight” will need oxygen tanks after watching this dramatized take on John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fannie Braun (Abbie Cornish). Y’know, Keats was the prince of romance poems. Braum was his muse and love. He died at 25. She might as well have, too. I love many of Campion’s films -- the way she can pulsate drama and God-knows-all simply by having a camera track a woman being followed by a man, through the woods, or her use of natural light. I also dig the way she demonstrates the sexism of the 1800s, the brick wall in life that every woman faced, without banging a frying pan over the viewer’s head. “Star” might not have the same explosive drama of “Piano,” but it’s a solid (albeit too low key at times) drama. It certainly surpasses most every eye-roller romance drama out there now. All that sobbing feels true. Loved the end spoken-word end credits. B+