By “The Film Nest” guest contributor Chase Kahn (see him in the comments section as well).

Young love is the subject of Jane Campion’s Bright Star, the New Zealand auteur’s first feature film since 2003’s In the Cut. After wrapping on the Meg Ryan thriller, the 55 year-old director decided to take four years off to be with her daughter, who inspired her to tackle the 19^th century story of Fanny Brawne and her romance with English poet John Keats, lasting between 1818-1821.

Already with Kathryn Bigelow’s searing war drama The Hurt Locker in theaters and the inevitable and impending praise for Lone Sherfig’s An Education, Campion appears set to fit in nicely into what is shaping up to be a banner year for women directors across the world. Campion is no novice to success, having won the Palme d’Or in 1993 for The Piano (the first and only female to win the coveted prize at Cannes). Now, she revisits the lush confines of the period drama for her gallant, yet unspectacular return to the screen.

To be young -- Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish looking quite posh.

Mrs. Brawne (Kerry Fox) moves her family to the Elm Cottage in Hampstead, England, where living next door is Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) and his co-worker and dear friend John Keats (Ben Whishaw). The eldest of Mrs. Brawne’s three children, Fanny (Abbie Cornish) immediately takes up an interest in John and his struggling work as a poet. When John’s brother Tom falls ill with tuberculosis, it provides the kind of tragic bonding that brings the two young lovers together. Despite the ill consent of his colleague Mr. Brown, John and Fanny develop an unshakeable connection, enhancing Keats’ artistry and Fanny’s appreciation for it, in equal doses.

Bright Star is a rather slight and minimalist kind of film, featuring only three significant characters and taking place almost exclusively in or around the Brawne family’s home or the residence of Mr. Keats. It enhances the aesthetic quality of the film, allowing concerns of genre conventions and banality to fall by the wayside. Campion is such a talented director, working with a first-rate crew, that the film is frequently an overwhelmingly well-polished production. It’s shot, cut and composed in a way that occasionally becomes levitational. With Mark Bradshaw’s gently subtle score and the soft, muted and gorgeous compositions (which are almost bashfully rendered) by Campion and cinematographer Greg Fraiser, the pedigree is never in question; the writing however, is.

Bright Star adheres strictly to the motto, “less is more”, which works great filmmaking-wise, giving it a distinctive touch, but unfortunately extends to Campion’s own screenplay. The relationship between Fanny and John is handled at arms-length and while the actors do their best, there’s never an authentic level of believability to the romance and as a result, it’s a cold, unemotional trip.

You can't read love letters in just any old flower patch.

Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss) is a refreshing face for a movie of this caliber, bringing the emotions of Fanny Brawne front and center in an admittedly edgeless and underwritten role. But the way Campion captures the young Cornish’s face, frequently in profile, accentuating the actress’ natural features – her up-turned nose and defined brows – it’s hard not to be impressed with the physical work in her performance. Ben Whishaw (Perfume, I’m Not There) is another very interesting young actor who equally impresses with his reserved and remote nature; there are times when the two actors really make something out nothing. However, despite their charms and undeniable talent, the characters themselves, especially John Keats, are written as such infuriatingly distant portraits that by the time the emotional impact is clearly intended to take over, it doesn’t register.

Paul Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James, Away We Go), however, is delightful as the self-centered, confounded, snarky and seemingly jealous curmudgeon, Charles Brown. Donning a heavy “scaw-ttish” accent, his disdain towards Fanny and John renders him as the villain, but he brings humanity to the role and has a really despondent moment in the closing scenes to bring Mr. Brown full circle. Schneider has proven to be a wonderful character actor over the last five years or so and his performance here will do nothing to harm that notion, but rather, only improve it.

John Keats, as portrayed by Jane Campion, was a man who feared that he would die before accomplishing all that he could as an artist and a poet. It seems ironic, given that Bright Star is a film that never reaches its true potential even when the results can be intermittently brilliant. For all it gets right, it’s too fundamentally distant and cold to resonate the way it was intended to and the tragic nature of its central love story is left untapped.