"The reality of love's disappointments enriches the film's heroine, who never married in real life, and brings a 200-year-old figure into living focus."

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 3, 2016

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Not only is that a huge stretch of the facts, it makes for a dull and overly familiar melodrama.

Full Review | Aug 14, 2007

Hathaway never makes us think the woman could write anything more complex than a diet book.

| Aug 10, 2007

This never rises above a date movie, but it's functionally literate (the lovers have some pleasant banter about the realistic merits of Tom Jones) and features a fine supporting turn from Ian Richardson.

| Aug 10, 2007

Becoming Jane becomes a rather ordinary, though sporadically entertaining, game of dress-up.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2007

Becoming Jane attempts to please the purists and the dreamers, but only results in disappointing both.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 10, 2007

Austen comes off here more as stenographer than writer.

| Aug 9, 2007

The movie goes down easy, but there's a thin line here: is this an homage or a parasite?

Full Review | Aug 7, 2007

Clearly embraces the spirit of the beloved novelist.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 6, 2007

Once you admit that the Jane Austen depicted onscreen bears scant relation to any person named Jane Austen, living or dead, the film fulfills its purpose.

| Aug 6, 2007

[McAvoy] and Hathaway simply aren't given much to do together, and they have two long hours to do it in. Screenwriters Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams seem reluctant to risk the ire of Austenites.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 3, 2007

The movie has an immense charm that sneaks up on you. Ultimately, it's a delicate ode to love and honor -- and to writing and reading.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 3, 2007

There's a lot to recommend Becoming Jane, particularly the performances. Hathaway does more than survive. If she doesn't seem like a literary genius, she at least seems like a worthy Austen heroine -- intelligent, independent and brave.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2007

Becoming Jane is one of those perfectly charming and well put together motion pictures I desperately want to like more than I actually do.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 3, 2007

Hathaway is too good an actress not to deliver more than just a grand star turn and she's able to carry the story of Austen's.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2007

Unlike an Austen story, Becoming Jane doesn't suffer from a predictable third act, and the characters aren't quite so schematic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 3, 2007

We can't quite shake the feeling we've seen this all done before, and better.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2007

The film seduces. Beautifully produced, from production design and costumes to music and performances, it's also faithful to the genteel spirit and repressed passions for which she's known.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 3, 2007