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About once in each year, there's a movie that appeals to the innermost girlie part of me, and I will admit that Bright Star is that movie for 2009. It's about the Romantic poet John Keats and his love affair with a woman he can't afford to marry, Fanny Brawne.

Keats and his fellow writer Charles Armitage Brown work together and live near Fanny's family, and eventually share a house with them. While Fanny initially doesn't seem to believe in the reality of love, she soon finds herself more and more attracted to Keats. The two share an interest for each other, but Keats is in debt and will never have the resources to offer himself as a husband to Fanny. Yet the two still spend time with each other, or if they aren't together, they're wishing they were together. Keats' poetry becomes more and more inspired with Fanny as his muse. As his health takes a turn for the worse, it's certain that the two can't be together, which brings his poetry into focus as the only way their love will live on. While all of this sounds like Keats is the main focus of the movie, it's actually told more from Fanny's perspective, and I think that worked well.

As the love of Keats and Fanny is fraught with barriers, there are many scenes in which those barriers are materialized in one way or another. Fanny is often separated from Keats against her will. Near each other, yet far, they watch each other through windows and curtains, tap at each other through walls, and position their beds right next to each other with the wall between them. It's only a wall between the two, but that wall is as impassable as the money and health issues that separate them. All of these scenes are really striking.

But I can't say that those are the only impressive visual moments, because the entire movie is wonderful to watch. Jane Campion (who also directed Portrait of a Lady) has an eye for creating effective scenes. Whether it's the placement of the actors or the framing of a shot, the visual stimulation on the screen enhances the story at all times. Campion also wrote the screenplay, which, while stirring up some romantic emotions, is actually a lot more quiet than I would have expected it to be. Fanny's family in particular were interesting. They don't have a lot of dialog, but they are always present, and their support and love for Fanny is always evident. So much goes unsaid in a movie that could have been overly dramatic, but Campion doesn't stoop to extreme emotions unless they're called for, and really, there's only one big scene that calls for it - and it's all the more effective. And there are some really nice little moments of humor too, which were sometimes completely unexpected, but perfectly integrated.

The music compliments the movie too, and speaks to its quiet nature. A lot of the original score is actually a single instrument, or a capella vocals. It doesn't swell and blare, but it's fitting for the characters it compliments. I bought a couple of the songs for myself, actually. The ending credits are some of the few I've actually stayed in the theater for, because they are actually set to Keats' poetry being read over the music. I think most of the audience remained in their seats to the very last note, which was a pleasant one, by the way.

I haven't even gotten to the actors themselves, but the ensemble cast is a great one. I would have no problem listing them as some of my favorites of the year. Ben Whishaw plays Keats, and is so different from his role in Brideshead revisted from last year that I didn't even recognize him. I'm going to have to keep an eye on him. Abbie Cornish is wonderful as Fanny, and sometimes her best scenes were with Paul Schneider as Brown, with whom the tension was always high. I don't think it would happen, but I wouldn't mind seeing Schneider nominated for a supporting role in the film.

When my sister and I left the theater, we just kept talking about the aspects we liked about the movie. We kept remembering scenes in which the color or costumes (which were amazing) were as "pretty as a poem." Everyone involved in the movie has been able to convey a story that is as lovely as poetry itself while still keeping the author's words in focus, and never stooping to make it too much of a soap opera. I can't think of a thing I didn't like about Bright Star.