becoming jane

We had our excursion to see Becoming Jane at the Dendy, and I certainly think it was a success. There were 8 of us (I may have lost count), and enough snacks for twice that :) Before and after the movie there was some enjoyable socialising.
As for the movie itself... as a movie it was a quite good costume drama/romance. Parts of Austen's life had been Hollywoodised, so if you are an Austen fanatic or just happen to know a lot about her life, parts of the movie will leave you irritated. The movie felt as though it was working from the 'Austen as feminist' position, and whatever your own views on this, it does provide ample opportunity for script writers to give Hathaway speeches that are quite 'modern' in sensibility. I presume the movie makers think that the current crop of Austen fans are young, feminist, educated, etc, and will therefore be cast into despair if Austen is seen to be anything else? I'm not sure. All my reading on Austen's life was done for year 12 English, which was quite a long time ago (1996 to be exact) so I'd have to reread it to be sure, but I don't recall that anyone is entirely sure why her one 'prospect' failed to lead to a marriage. So I guess they could say anything they liked - but I can easily think of reasons for Jane not to have eloped with Tom that are not as mawkish as the one given in the film.

On an entirely unrelated note, if anyone here is as interested in period costume as in drama, you might want to stroll through level 2 of the QVB soon. They have a display of shoes there, and among the many funky constructions of current TAFE students, and lots of lovely 1940s - 1970s shoes, are some shoes and boots from the 1800s. OMG narrow shoes! One display card said that women would wear shoes 'like corsets' - i.e. to give shape to their feet. Ouch.