I was fortunate enough to attend an advanced screening of Becoming Jane last night, and as I predicted in my trailer review, this one is a RENT IT. The film plays very fast and loose with the “facts” of Jane Austen’s life, and should by no means be taken as a biopic. But luckily, that doesn’t take away from the bittersweet story it’s telling.

Anne Hathaway, although not British, plays Jane beautifully. She manages to portray Jane as a strong-willed, independent woman, while still allowing her vulnerable side to show through. And James McAvoy is absolutely charming as the philandering Irishman who catches Jane’s hard-to-catch eye. The story tends to lag in places, as most period pieces are known to do, but it manages to pick itself up and engross you again.

So while not a staggering work of genius, Becoming Jane is exactly what it sets out to be; a sweet and sad love story that anyone who has liked the films based on Austen’s novels will enjoy. It’s perfect for viewing on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

I’ve been around the block a couple times with the whole writing thing, so I’ve learned a bit about character devices. Indeed, one of my favorite character devices is the one where you use a character’s physical traits to subtly hint at the character’s inner personality.

For example, if your male lead has a very dependent personality, you might have him walking around on crutches for a some part of the story. Or if your female lead is completely oblivious to the realities in her life, it might be fun to fashion her with a really thick pair of eye-glasses.

The thing about this particular character device, though, is that it really does have to be done subtly. The point is that you’re trying to communicate with the audience on a subconscious level, not a conscious one, and if you make the connection too obvious, it just ends up being cheesy and stupid. A good example of this is Elisabeth Shue’s character in The Saint, who’s life-threatening “heart condition” mysteriously disappeared when her and Val Kilmer’s character fell in love (excuse me while I throw up).

This is why I find the new Christina Ricci movie, Penelope, so fascinating. When I first heard about the premise of this movie, about a girl whose family curse leaves her with a pig-snout for a nose, I immediately assumed that it would be a stinker. After all, you can’t get any more obvious than to put an actual pig-snout on a girl. However, when I finally saw this trailer, which just hit the internet a couple days ago, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does this movie not look cheesy or stupid; it actually looks pretty good.

I guess the only explanation for this is that sometimes you can go to such an extreme that it ends up being interesting. Instead of trying to be clever about this girl resembling a pig, this movie just throws it in your face from the very beginning and you have no choice but to get over the lack of subtlety and focus on the rest of the story.

Indeed, Penelope seems to turn this character device on its head in more ways than one. Most importantly, instead of having Christina Ricci’s character be a bit of a slob or have an ugly personality, as the pig-snout would imply, her character is actually the exact opposite of these things. Thus, the character device is no longer being used to imply anything at all about the character’s actual personality. Instead, the pig-snout is there to prove a point, that a person’s physical traits often have absolutely nothing to do with the realities of who the person actually is on the inside.

I was unsure which trailer to post today until I saw that The Last King of Scotland is opening nationwide on Friday. Like many Oscar contenders, the movie had a limited release in 2006. Now that Forest Whitaker is winning every Best Actor award in sight, Fox Searchlight is wisely expanding the movie nationwide.

One look at the trailer and you’ll see why Whitaker’s performance has been so acclaimed. He disappears into the role, without needing make-up or a drastic weight change. His droopy eyelid (he told Esquire he could have it fixed, but he chooses not to) makes him look truly evil in the role, and therefore perfectly cast. Oscar voters love accents and portrayals of real people; this performance has both.

Even without all the accolades for Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland gets my vote to SEE IT. It is a compelling story based on true events in Uganda, and James McAvoy and Kerry Washington look like they turned in some pretty impressive performances of their own.

The Last King of Scotland is rated R and opens nationwide on Friday, January 19. (Official site)