Jane Campion's film about the love affair of John Keats and Fanny Brawne is artfully done and outstandingly well-designed and paced for the plot and tone they're working with. Sony Pictures Classics' DVD (released 26 Jan) looks and sounds as good as DVD can. I only wish that there had been an accompanying Blu-ray, because this movie would have shown the format off to splendid effect.

Star got a Best Costuming nod the other morning, but it deserves mention for Cinematography as well. The movie is through-and-through a costume drama about the agony of existence before cell phones. It requires patience and concentration, two virtues with which the Notebook generation is less than acquainted. Abbie Cornish puts in a period-appropriate, authentic performance as Brawne, a woman ahead of her time. Ben Whishaw has little to do other than look ill and worried, but he does a solid enough job of the work.

The extras include a single two- or three-minute deleted scene and three featurettes that total about 7 minutes. The featurettes are short interviews with Campion. The film speaks well enough for itself, but I would have loved to see a substantive featurette on the costume design process. This is destined for "that movie was pretty good, why hadn't I heard of it?" status.