Can crusty old Jane Austen become the chick-lit It girl for a new generation of young women? It’s possible, at least in theory. Her novels touch on two themes at the heart of teenage life, love and money. But what chance has the Austen heroine, and her belief in love over lifestyle, in the age of Paris Hilton?

Anne Hathaway, the American actress who won teenage hearts when she appeared in The Princess Diaries, plays the 20-year-old author in Becoming Jane. Douglas Rae, the film’s producer, is confident that she can introduce a new generation to the charms of Austen: “We went with Anne because we know she will bring in a young teen audience.” She may bring them in, but will they like what they see? Well, the clothes for women are awful — wall-to-wall Laura Ashley. Nobody shops, but the guys are cute. And, thanks to Hathaway, this Jane Austen has a flawless complexion that any young girl would die for.

Becoming Jane is based on a true incident in Austen’s life, one that supposedly shatters the familiar stereotype. Out goes Austen the fusty spinster who toiled away in the solitary confinement of her room, the woman chained to convention, with cool rationality running in her veins. In comes passionate Jane, who falls in love with a rogue, defies convention, speaks her mind, plays cricket and even cops an eyeful of male buttocks without fainting.

The film opens with the high-spirited author bugging her parents with her loud music — banging away on the family piano — as young people are meant to do. “Jane!” her exasperated mother (Julie Walters) screams, in a way that says: turn that racket down! Jane suffers the pangs of parental embarrassment when her mother’s talk turns to that most pressing of subjects: finding a husband for her. Her mother’s favourite is Mr Wisley (Laurence Fox), nephew of the aristocratic and very rich Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith). Then into the provincial life of the Austen family comes a friend of Jane’s brother called Tom Lefroy — a drinker, fighter and lover who is totally broke and totally unsuitable to fall in love with. At first, Jane and Tom get on just like characters in an Austen novel — each overhears what the other one thinks of them. She thinks he’s an arrogant, condescending snob; he thinks she’s full of herself. And we think: hold on, isn’t this just a new version of Pride and Prejudice?

The film-makers’ defence would be that Austen used the material of her life as the foundation of her art. They make the rather simplistic claim that to understand how she became Jane Austen, you have to see this key episode in her life. Love — and not just imagination — is what expanded her narrow horizons and thus her insights into the human heart.

For all the promise of providing a fresh look at the life of Austen, there are no real surprises here. We’re back in that world we all know so well from her novels and recent films, only this time the lead character is Austen playing an Austen heroine. All the familiar themes (propriety v passion) and familiar types (snobbish aristocrat, pushy, matchmaking mum) are present and correct. And, as with Mrs Brown (about Queen Victoria’s romance with her gillie) and Miss Potter, the film wants to show its subjects as humans with real passions — but not too much passion, and heaven forbid any sexual longing. I suspect that the makers of Becoming Jane were careful not to offend Austen’s core followers by being too revealing. The screenplay, by Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams, seems rather intimidated by the decorum commanded by a national icon such as Austen. But why avoid the sex question? All we see on the screen is one quick, passionate kiss. Did she ever feel lust for Lefroy? Were his intentions really so honourable?

Hathaway does a competent, if uninspired, job of playing Jane. But it’s a terrible mistake to cast anyone as beautiful as she is in such a role, because we don’t believe she’s the type of girl who is in danger of spinsterhood. After his role in The Last King of Scotland, James McAvoy is clearly the flavour of the month, but here he’s just not sexy, edgy or passionate enough to play a romantic hero. Consequently, as a love story, Becoming Jane just misses the mark. You never feel a kind of sadness or anger that the two lovers are denied their chance of happiness. The film seems to be saying, oh, well, never mind — Jane lost at love, but won at literature.

Becoming Jane PG, 120 mins

Three stars

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