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United Kingdom · 1986
Rated PG-13 · 2h 22m
Director Trevor Nunn
Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Cary Elwes, John Wood, Patrick Stewart
Genre Drama, History, Romance
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The death of King Henry VIII throws England into chaos because of succession disputes. A scheming minister marries off his son, Guildford, to Lady Jane Grey, the heir to the throne. At first hostile to each other, Guildford and Jane fall in love. But can their love withstand the power dynamics of the throne?
Despite its radical gloss, this over-long, lifeless epic of doomed true love falls into all the predictable traps: excessive pageantry, Monty Python-like peasants, dialogue that drips with sentiment, and even the sight of young lovers running through rural England.
Chicago Tribune by Gene Siskel
There`s nothing really seriously wrong with the movie, save for the casting of Elwes. Lady Jane simply states and restates its premise, and then it`s over in a predictable manner.
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
At the very least, Lady Jane ought to summon more emotion than it does. But the early part of it is so reserved, and the latter part so incongruously fulsome, that it never manages to draw any deep response - not even when a beheading costs the hapless young Jane her luxuriant, Brooke Shields-like hair.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
It’s not only poignant but also fun and unabashedly entertaining in the way that “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” still is. And it does have it all: authentic, sumptuous 16th-Century settings awash with warm Tudor brick, a splendid cast adorned with jewel-encrusted costumes, palace intrigue and, best of all, a pair of star-crossed young lovers who are irresistible.
Washington Post by Paul Attanasio
Overall, the movie is cloddishly composed, with awkward zooms and theatrical blocking. This is one of those movies where characters speak in asides to the audience; Nunn has reinvented the proscenium arch.
Washington Post by Rita Kempley
Despite these lapses in decorum, Jane makes an impressive Tudor "Romeo and Juliet," full of pomp and circumstance. [7 Feb 1986, p.N19]
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