Just returned from seeing this absolutely beautiful movie by Jane Campion. It’s slow and dark but so very rich in emotion that I forgave it. And it broke my heart. How Abbie Cornish could possibly escape an Oscar nomination is beyond me, she’s so powerful and delicate as Fanny Brawne. Lots and lots of brilliant acting all around, in fact.

Topper the cat was a total scene stealer. In one scene especially he does something so perfectly feline in oblivion to the human drama going on around him that everyone in the theater laughed out loud despite the scene. Whilst the humans are lying about, saying, “Oh, beauty! Oh, love! Oh, sighing!” his kitty brain was saying, “KILL! KILL! KILL!” What happened couldn’t possibly have been staged. I’m glad Campion kept it because it made everything feel more real.

Bawled my head off from about “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” to the end, just so you know. It is what they’d call a tragedy, after all.

And there you have it.