Boy meets girl. They fall in love. There are problems: they cannot marry because he has no money; he gets sick. Sorrow and pain are inevitable. Not a very original or exciting narrative. But if you turn that into a poem (especially a poem with Romantic sentiment) it can be a moving experience. That is what Jane Campion does with the story of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne in Bright Star.

Brawne is literally the girl next door when Keats (a poet who failed to find critical success in his own day) is living with Charles Armitage Brown. Brawne's family is clearly nineteenth century bourgeoisie. She is that day's version of a fashionista—designing and making her own clothing that reflects a great sense of style. She could make a living at it, but apparently the family has sufficient income that actually working would be beneath them. She is capable and confident in all that she does.

Keats on the other hand is penniless, living with Brown who admires and encourages his work. Keats and Brown spend their days musing (as in awaiting the Muses' inspiration). Brown hates that Brawne becomes something of a distraction, but soon it turns out she is Keats's muse. Their love grows quickly, but because of the constraints of the day that love cannot be consummated. Keats is frail, especially after he develops tuberculosis. Eventually he must move to Rome because he could not survive another winter.

Those are the bare bones of the story. It's really not unlike many other romance stories that have been told through the years. If we were to focus only on the story, this would be a rather pedestrian film. What makes Bright Star different is that it is in fact a poem—it is less about the narrative than it is about the aesthetics with which the story is told. Keats wrote the line "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Bright Star is above all else a thing of beauty. The very opening of the film, an extreme close up of needle and thread being pushed through a piece of cloth draws the viewer into a world where perfection is celebrated in the minute as well as the massive. The film is full of images of expansive fields of flowers and of the beauty of butterflies' wings.

As spectacular as the images and the cinematography are, the poetry of the film is not limited to the visual. The language throughout the film is lyrical and elevated. Keats and Brawne don't whisper sweet nothings to one another; they use words in ways that show the depths of their emotions and vulnerability.

Romanticism valued emotion and nature. In many ways our modern ideas of love are more firmly rooted in Romanticism than anything else—including religious concepts of love. The love we experience in Bright Star is a very human and earthly love, yet it may very well be same kind of self-giving and eternal love that we understand to be divine.

We often rely on the poets to show us a world that is beyond the commonplace. That is why many people are moved more by hymns in church than by the sermon. Poetry creates something beyond the words themselves. That is true of Bright Star as well. With this film Campion joins the ranks of the Romantic poets.