Becoming disillusioned

The coverage is building - Becoming Jane is about to be released in Australia.

Now normally, such an event would fill me with glee. Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors, and I am an enthusiastic consumer of all adaptations of her novels. Even the dodgy ones, like the incredibly slow and drawn out 1971 BBC version of Persuasion with a geriatric Anne in a beehive hairdo.

But I am decidedly not excited about this 'biography' of Jane Austen herself. Everything I have read and heard suggests that it is an opportunistic jump on the Austen bandwagon, because she only published six novels, and, since 2005, all have been or are about to be adapted again for the screen (with the exception of Emma).

As Margaret and David said tonight, Becoming Jane feels awfully familiar. That's because its makers have taken a small incident in Jane Austen's life and woven together an explanation as to its great impact on her development as a writer. From what I've read online, they've tried to turn her into Elizabeth Bennet.

Of course I will see it, and soon. I'm just not rushing to the cinema for opening night tomorrow.