With thanks to Netflix (who will soon be finding me cancelling my membership with them thanks to their decision to move away from the HD DVD format, but I digress...), I just sat and watched the film Becoming Jane with my wife.
I try hard not to 'blind purchase' or buy some discs 'cold' as I just don't know in advance if I'll find enough value in the movie and extras on the disc to make it one that I would want to watch again and again, or more importantly, to make it one that I would not mind throwing my money into the purchase of it. In the case of Becoming Jane, I was fairly well certain that I wouldn't want to buy the film and would pretty much have to make myself sit and watch it with my wife as part of a date-nite/movie-nite event. I didn't expect it to be horrible, but pretty much expected going in that it would be much more friendly to the female audience than to my typical action/adventure loving self.
I continue to try hard to avoid getting any more movies in the older DVD format with it's standard definition content, and instead I'm sticking with renting Blu-ray or HD DVD as more content becomes available in those formats. Becoming Jane was a new release to the Blu-ray format this week, and just so happened to coincide fairly nicely with Valentines Day, so it seemed to be a good choice to watch on Valentines eve 2008.
An unexpected slick feature on the Blu-ray disc/movie...
Unfortunately, since this Blu-ray disc was a rental for us and not as a disc I purchased or planned to purchase, I frustrated myself a bit in not knowing of one feature that was available on this particular Blu-ray disc/movie. I normally love bonus materials and will dig into discs to see what is there when possible and even with this movie, that was the case. As my wife and I watched the movie, she had a few questions about Jane Austen that I didn't know the answers to (never having been a big fan of Miss Austen). If I had known the answers, or if it would not have been too distracting to stop watching the movie and look up the information on the internet while watching, I might have gotten that information for her, but as it turns out that isn't necessary with the Blu-ray disc version of this movie. Not necessary at all.
The Blu-ray version of the movie includes a pop-up feature that puts pop-up trivia and factoids on the screen to provide additional information as you watch the movie. The only drawback being that in order to see all of those pop-ups you'd have to turn the feature on when you start watching the movie or you'd have to sit and watch the movie a second time with the feature turned on. The trivia and tidbits include information like what time period was the story covering, how long were the distances from point A to point B, etc., and more. The pop-up feature can be enabled in the special features area. Had I known in advance that the feature was available, I would have turned it on immediately, though there was some concern from my wife that the pop-ups would obscure the film too much or be too distracting.
From the sampling we did after the fact (we went back and watched just a few of the pop-ups as we rewatched a few chapters to see how the feature worked, how prevalent the pop-ups were, and how distracting they might be) I'd have to give credit to the way the pop-ups were done. Mixed in with the right frequency (not too often, not too infrequent either), and not too distracting at all. Also quite informative and educational.
Some distractions....
There were a few distractions here for me and they leave me marking the film down into the 3.5 - 4 star (out of 5 maximum) range.
First, I tend to watch films with English subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing on. Neither my wife nor myself are deaf or even hard of hearing, but there are times we miss dialog and seeing subtitles can help tell us what we missed or might miss. There are, in many discs and movies, all too frequently times when the volume levels in movies vary so widely that if we turn the volume up enough to hear quiet dialog we may be blown out of the room soon after because of some loud noise or other material that blasts our ear drums out when volume returns to more normal levels.
In the case of Becoming Jane, the subtitles are fairly true to the dialog, but there are times when it was obvious to me that the pacing of the subtitles quite obviously wasn't matching the dialog that was being spoken. Something that hearing individuals may never realize is that there are little subtleties in the pacing of spoken word conversation that can quite easily be lost when reading subtitles. Such was the case with Becoming Jane, and it changed things somewhat from the spoken words one hears in watching the film. I'm reminded of friends and former co-workers that happen to be deaf and the challenges they face in watching films, TV shows and the like. After picking up the differences in the written versus spoken word in Becoming Jane, I really feel a bit frustrated in knowing that they could be missing things because of the difference in how things are conveyed between the two communications methods, especially when the written word doesn't include indications of pauses or perhaps overlapping conversation. With Becoming Jane I think some of that could have been improved (in the subtitles) if desired, but then again the areas alloted for subtitles are only so big and including extra characters like ... could use just a bit too much real estate on the screen. Maybe. (Though I really wish the subtitlers would try as I think it would help preserve the original intent of the dialog more than just a quick line of text on the screen does.)
More distractions....
Another distraction for me was in the spoken word in the film and the lack of accent that I would expect from people living in England or Ireland. Becoming Jane seemed to be almost completely bereft of accents for any of the major players which just seemed off to me as I think about the film that I watched. While it wasn't distracting while watching, as I sit and think about the film now, it strikes me something that is missing.
The final distraction for me, a fairly inevitable one, is having seen various adaptations of the story of Miss Austen or her characters (which parallel her own life in manners similar to say the film Shakespeare in Love) that have been shown repeatedly on say PBS or A&E and other outlets. From those characters and the actors and actresses that portrayed them one might have a certain expectation and anctipation of events in Becoming Jane that are inevitable and inescapable. Not necessarily a bad thing, and really not overly distracting, just something that you can't help but think of as you watch this particular film and think of similar materials you've seen elsewhere.
Summarize please?
Becoming Jane is a good film, aimed (I believe) much more at female audiences than male, but enjoyable enough for a family to sit and watch. The film is rated PG with virtually no objectionable material found within. Nearly 2 hours in length, but certainly not dragged out. A bit too rushed in some spots, such that viewers may wonder how much time has passed between some events that are shown in the film, but I suspect that the lack of a clear timeline as you go wasn't intentional but more a fault of making a film that covers a greater passage of time fit into a time frame that won't leave viewers tired of sitting still.
As some point I'll likely buy a copy of the film for my daughter to watch and my wife to rewatch when she pleases. Also, as my wife suggested, it's the kind of movie that my AARP set mother would also very much enjoy. In the end, that basically equates to me saying this is a movie that would appeal to a wide spectrum of ages.
