Bayside resident Mark Metcalf is an actor who has worked in movies, TV and on the stage. He is best known for his work in "Animal House," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Seinfeld."

In addition to his work on screen, Metcalf is involved with the Milwaukee International Film Festival, First Stage Children's Theater and a number of other projects, including the comedy Web site, comicwonder.com.

He also finds time to write about movies for OnMadison.com. In this week's installment of the Screening Room, Mark looks at "Becoming Jane" and "In Bruges."

BECOMING JANE (2007)

Julius and I sat down to watch "Becoming Jane." I was trying to explain to him who Jane Austen was and why it might be important to him to read her at some point. A wee bit insincere on my part, I admitted, since I had never read her myself.

However, I had known so many women who not only read Jane Austen but also doted upon her. They cherished the stories, drew references for their own lives from her characters -- smart, attractive, funny women each with a well-developed sense of irony -- that I suggested he should read her works at least once to be able to hold conversation with these women, if they still exist, and I certainly hope they do.

The propriety, the civilization, the determination of class and the struggle against all that while never departing from it entirely are a staple of English literature and of films about, or taken from, English literature.

And the UK in the late 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries, when it was master of the globe -- fat, rich, arrogant, ignorant and living off the sweat and blood of "dirty wogs" in jungles and deserts around the world -- is a wonderfully transparent model for a civilization slouching towards the edge of an abyss while humming a vaguely melancholy tune.

As the American economy drifts over the edge of another abyss, we might well take a good look at the behavior of a people in a similar situation as they, oh so very slowly, tried to ignore and forestall what was recognized by all, in hindsight, to have been inevitable.

But, I am biting off a little more than Jane Austen was trying to chew. Yet again, I haven't read her, so maybe she was dealing with planetary issues, but it always seems as though she was totally focused on matters of the heart and of personal freedom. You could do that in the 18th century. This film about her is purely a romance. Julius says he loves a good love story and he liked it, which I think is somewhat unusual in a 13-year-old.

Anne Hathaway, who must have the largest eyes ever photographed, plays a young Jane Austen and James McAvoy, who is doing all the period pieces these days, plays Tom Lefroy, her lover and apparently the inspiration for most of the romantic leading men in all her novels.

As in so many of these stories, class keeps them apart and I am left thinking that, but for class, perhaps so many of the sisters of Sarah Lawrence, Wellesley, Vassar, Radcliffe and now Brown, Princeton, and Harvard, wouldn't have the independence of Jane Austen as a beacon to grow themselves toward.

It is a charming film, which demands only that you be patient while watching it and enjoy the struggles of an intelligent young woman, many decades ahead of her time.

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Related links:

• markmetcalf.net
• comicwonder.com

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