You don't have to know the books to be in the club.
As five women and one enigmatic man meet to discuss the works of Jane Austen, they find their love lives playing out in a 21st century version of her novels. Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), is shocked when her husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits), leaves her after 20 plus years and three children. Jocelyn (Maria Bello), her unmarried best friend, distracts herself from her unacknowledged loneliness by breeding dogs. Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a young French teacher, in possession of a worthy husband yet distracted by persistent fantasies about sex with another man. The many times married Bernadette (Kathy Baker) develops a yearning for one more chance at happiness. Beautiful, risk-taking Allegra (Maggie Grace), Sylvia and Daniel's lesbian daughter, has quit talking to her lover. And Grigg (Hugh Dancy), a young science fiction fan and computer whiz, seems horribly both out of place and obliviously at ease as the only man to be invited into the book circle.
Special Agent Matti
The Jane Austen Book Club is, pure and simple, a chick flick - not just because Jane Austen wrote chick books but because, even if you take the books away, this film is all about a bunch of people sitting around talking about relationships, the meaning of love and how to cook. At the end of the film everyone has gotten married (except for the lesbian, who is not able to form a stable relationship, of course) and is prepped to live happily ever after.
If you are an academic and looking for a text with a classical bent you can do a comparison between the script and the works of Jane Austen.
The comedy, drama, romance movie The Jane Austen Book Club is directed by Robin Swicord and stars Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Hugh Dancy.
M (Infrequent moderate coarse language)
105 minutes (1:45 hours)
Film: 31 January 2008
