Jane Campion steers clear of the clichés of the typical English bonnets-and-breeches costume drama, but she veers too far in the opposite direction when she turns the tragic romance of John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) into a casual, housebound flirtation between two giggly neighbours.
Only Keats's resentful friend Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) shows any hot-blooded passion; everyone else just recites poetry at each other.
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