Miss Austen Regrets (2008) (TV)

Director:

Jeremy Lovering

Writers:

Jane Austen (letters)
Gwyneth Hughes (writer)

Release Date:

3 February 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

In the later years of her life, as she's approaching the age of forty, the novelist Jane Austen helps her niece find a husband. |

Plot Keywords:

Poverty | Independence | Writer | Britain | Artist

Cast

Hugh Bonneville	...	Rev. Brook Bridges
Adrian Edmondson	...	Henry Austen
Tom Goodman-Hill	...	Mr. Lushington MP
Harry Gostelow	...	Rev. Charles Papillon
Sylvie Herbert	...	Mme. Bigeon
Tom Hiddleston	...	Mr. John Plumptre
Jack Huston	...	Doctor Charles Haden
Phyllida Law	...	Mrs. Austen
Imogen Poots	...	Fanny Austen-Knight
Samuel Roukin	...	Harris Bigg
Greta Scacchi	...	Cassandra Austen
Sally Tatum	...	Anna Lefroy
Pip Torrens	...	Edward Austen-Knight
Jason Watkins	...	Rev. Clarke
Olivia Williams	...	Jane Austen

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA | UK

Filming Locations:

Hall Barn, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

BBC Films

Movie Connections:

Version of Becoming Jane (2007)

Now that's better . . .

As one of the many Austen fans still smarting from the vacuously boring Becoming Jane, I was nervous about this. As if sensing this apprehension, Miss Austen Regrets set off at a gallop. One and a half minutes in and we are already over the worst hurdles. We have a talented, intelligent lead - an innovative, sparkily humorous script - tactful and assured direction. Phew!

All memory of the toxically banal Ann Hathaway as the younger Jane evaporated as the lovely Olivia Williams settled into the part - so successfully that the sideswipe the writer takes at the earlier production 20 minutes in seems inappropriately vengeful.

Without hitting the exact spot, this was very, very much better.

It played on safer ground. It portrays Austen between the publication of Mansfield Park and Emma, just starting on the first draft of Persuasion and surrounds her with characters with credible lives of their own. It does an excellent job of demonstrating just how fragile was the life of even a woman successful and famous enough to be a guest of the Prince Regent. Only by marriage rather than as a result of her work can Jane support her family in their modest style of life. Questions over her brother's estate threaten the house she lives in but can never own. This insecurity is what Miss Austen really regrets.

All the minor performances are what you'd expect from top-drawer BBC period drama and Olivia Williams and Imogen Poots are excellent in the two central roles of aunt who hasn't given up flirting and the niece about to become engaged who is still learning the ropes. The whole production portrays an interesting life, full of love, frustration, struggle and uncertainty about life's choices, and does something like justice to one of the greatest authors of literature and her most intimate concerns.

So, if you've seen neither of the two recent dramas about Jane Austen's life and you're prone to kicking the cat when angered, make absolutely certain that you see this one first.