The Jane Austen Book Club

Plot synopsis:
The book club is the brainchild of fiftysomething six-time divorcée Bernadette (Kathy Baker), who latches onto the idea when she meets Prudie (Emily Blunt), a prim, married high school French teacher in her mid-20s, at a Jane Austen film festival. Her concept is to have six members discuss all of Austen's six novels, with each member hosting the group once a month. Also inducted into the club are Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), a fortysomething librarian who recently has separated from her philandering lawyer husband Daniel after more than two decades of marriage; Sylvia's 20-something lesbian daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace); Jocelyn (Maria Bello), a happily unmarried control freak and breeder of Rhodesian Ridgebacks who has been Sylvia's friend since childhood; and Grigg (Hugh Dancy), a science fiction fan who's roped into the group by Jocelyn with the hope he and Sylvia will prove to be a compatible match.
As the months pass, each of the members develops characteristics similar to those of Austen's characters and reacts to events in their lives in much the same way their fictional counterparts would. Bernadette is the matriarch figure who longs to see everyone find happiness. Sylvia clings to her belief in steadfast love and devotion, and eventually reconciles with Daniel. Jocelyn denies her own feelings for Grigg while playing matchmaker for him and Sylvia. Prudie, encumbered with her inattentive husband Dean and a free-spirited, pot-smoking, aging-hippie mother, a product of the 1960s counterculture, finds herself desperately trying not to succumb to her feelings for her seductive student Trey. Allegra, who tends to meet her lovers while engaging in death-defying activities, feels betrayed when she discovers her current partner, aspiring writer Corinne, has used Allegra's life as the basis for her short stories. Grigg is attracted to Jocelyn and mystified by her seeming lack of interest in him, marked by her failure to read the Ursula K. Le Guin novels he has hoped will catch her fancy. He also serves as the comedic foil to Jocelyn and Prudie's very serious takes on the books.
The last meeting is held at the beach. Daniel wants to join the book club and is let to by Sylvia. Grig brings his elder sister Cat Harris, who persuades Jocelyn to take a chance on Grig because he loves her. Prudie initially wanted to meet Trey, but decides against it after putting herself in Jane Austen's shoes and instead goes home to Dean and makes him read Persuasion, which helps them find the love they once had. Daniel leaves a letter for Sylvia at her doorstep, upon reading, she accepts Daniel back.
Jocelyn finally reads the books Grig gave to her and is surprised to find that she loves them and can't put them down. She drives over to Grig's house but realises it was still very early and dozes off in her car. When Grig comes out of his house, he sees Jocelyn's car and knocks on her window. Jocelyn finally gives in to her feelings and they both passionately kiss.
One year later, the book club meets at Sylvia's library charity dinner. Grig and Jocelyn are together; Sylvia and Daniel have reconciled; Prudie is pregnant; and Bernadette has remarried for the seventh-time.

Tags: romantic, gothic, realism

Review:
There are several attractive females, some lesbian domestic affection scenes handled with remarkable matter-of-factness, and the film (and novel) handles the male characters gently and with love.But it is a movie that with primary appeal to two groups--chicks and Jane Austen devotees, including the male ones.
Whether you live in the age of Blackberries and Hybrid SUV's, or the age of sealing wax and barouches, every person comes smack up against many or most of these vexing problems throughout their lives.The conceit of this movie and the book it is based upon is that a shared love and appreciation of the works of Jane Austen can provide the currency through the exchange of which modern women (and a few selected men) can confront, share, and come to better understand their personal challenges and in the process, form bonds of friendship or even romance.
Sure, Darcy is a smoldering hunk of tightly-controlled passion and Lizzie is as spirited and intelligent a heroine as ever nanced through a foot of mud to get to the bedside of an ailing sister, but that's not it.In all the other Austen pairings, you had a sense that they were pairings which would truly happen in real life because deep down we know nothing has really changed from Austen's day--women's beauty and youth and social standing is factored into a certain equation which determines how handsome, wealthy, charming, accomplished, or respected a man she is able to aspire to.
It is also true that nice, handsome, heterosexual men join book clubs*.But this movie serves up impossibly cute Hugh Dancy in the role of an implausibly unattached, adorably geeky Grigg Harris who loves reading, older women, and can dance gracefully despite being too clumsy to artfully sip a cocktail.
The statistical probability of such an attractive and unspoiled man (one who admits he is willing to be "directed") like this joining your book club and then actually wanting to develop a romantic relationship with an unattached woman older than himself is approximately the same as seeing one of the Dragonriders of Pern barnstorming over an Iowa cornfield.In the RL JABC, Grigg would be gay and Allegra would be straight and Bernadette would be queuing up for the Early Bird Special at Cracker Barrel.
Their diversity brings perspective and depth to the story.I loved Bernadette's (Kathy Baker) ballsy and ebullient pseudo-matriarchal figure; and I silently cheered for Jocelyn (Maria Bello) to break out of her disciplined and 'in-control' habits, but it was Emily Blunt's portrayal of Prudie that shone a light giving the sharpest and most emotional contrast of all.
We are ultimately drawn to watching the ever-changing relationships, like petri dishes being poked and provoked.This movie will be enjoyable even for those unfamiliar with Jane Austen's novels.
In California, the favorite dog of the lonely Jocelyn (Maria Bello) dies and she meets her best friends in the funeral: the six times divorced Bernadette (Kathy Baker); the housewife Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) and her lesbian daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace); and the young French teacher Prudie (Emily Blunt), whose mother is a dysfunctional woman.When Sylvia's husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) dumps her for a younger woman, Bernadette and Jocelyn organize a reading club of Jane Austen to distract her with Allegra and Prudie.
While reading the novels, their lives entwine with the characters of the writer, leading each one of them to find what is looking for in love."The Jane Austen Book Club" is a delightful film for common viewers, but certainly wonderful for Jane Austen's fans.
The story about love, second chance and Jane Austen novels has one of the most pleasant and charismatic cast that I have ever seen, with very beautiful and charming mature and young actresses and great actors having top-notch performances.
In this movie, she's other-worldly.) I would have liked the movie more if some of the characters had the appearance of people you meet in the real world.The film will work better if you know Jane Austen's novels and characters.
And I half expected a costume drama to unfold on the screen, but got something that was a little more cliché in one way, but very unique in another.The film uses Austen's plots as set piece examples from which the characters learn, apply to their personal lives, and grow.
However, I liked "The Jane Austen Book Club" more than either of those movies.While it is not particularly realistic, the characters are interesting and likable, the acting is good, and it is not filled with violence and vulgarity, something that seems to be hard to find in the movie theater right now.All the actors are good but Emily Blunt really stands out.
And who knew that Maggie Grace was a real actress and not just the bimbo she played on "Lost." "The Jane Austen Fan Club" is not a masterpiece and you can probably wait for it to show up on video, but with the poor variety currently available in the theaters, it is the best thing out right now..
"The Jane Austen Book Club" was a pleasant movie, one I didn't mind watching once but would not want to watch again.
A book club of bourgeois people who read Jane Austen and fall in love!" and went about filling in the pieces of that puzzle without ever investing any of the characters with real human warmth.One characterization stands out, though.
Although I have yet to read one Jane Austen novel -feeling like the odd one out during last night's Gala presentation at Cinefest- I very much enjoyed this movie.
Much like this movie.The modern day Jane Austen book club members act out love lives and turmoil (and triumphs) very much in parallel with a Jane Austin book, as I understand their plots to be (I have seen them all in movies, but never in print).
Some characters don't seem to feel genuine, and random things seem to happen to move the story along.I also don't understand why a movie about a book club has to have a shaky camera at times, and multiple shots of people at different angles while someone is sitting at a table having a conversation?I guess they figured they had to keep the camera moving to keep people's attention.
It's not like I was clueless as to what they saying during their meetings, it was just hard for me to relate anything to the five women and one man in the club (I suppose that's why it was necessary to spell all Austen's themes out during the conversation, for the ones who haven't read any of her books).All that aside, I found many of the situations predictable and 'been there, done that' but I did find the plot more intelligent than your average chick flick.
Emily Blunt, Kevin Zegers, Maggie Grace and Hugh Dancy were the best of the lot but the rest of the cast (Maria Bello, Kathy Baker and Amy Brenneman) were exceptional as well.I suppose the positives and negatives balance each other out to make this just an average film that tries to be more than a chick flick, but doesn't quite do it.
It makes perfect sense that a cross-section (mostly women) of Californian people with time to spare and quite a few loose ends in their lives to tie up would follow Austen as their chosen book club author.
Just for the record, I'm not a follower of Jane Austen's works but do know the salient titles and a few of the key characters and I'm sure if you do, you'd get more from the film than maybe I did.
This might have made for a decent movie, but the choppy and over fast pace made everything too confusing to follow, and after a half hour my mother and I gave up on it.I have not read the novel it was based on, and I have read maybe one or two Jane Austen books (and that was for school decades ago), but the idea sounded interesting.
But other reviewers here have said that the movie fails to follow the novel it was based on, and the stories of the main characters did not necessarily correspond to what happened in any Jane Austen stories (as the box for the movie implied was the case).Though they were ahead of their time for their era, it is difficult to believe the most liberal-minded authors of that era would have covered lesbianism, or for that matter, bestiality (as implied by the remark about the dog taking care of a woman's sexual needs).
So, I couldn't draw parallels and recognize all the characters of the novels that frequently interweave in conversations along the film.That didn't prevent it from sucking me in from the first minutes.Jane Austen apart, I think this is a great piece of cinema, for the exquisite acting it displays and the rich script.
The quiet looks of Jocelyn when Grigg starts paying attention to Sylvia or when he talks about her in the library say more than a thousand words; the guilty look in Prudie's eyes when she looks across the street meaning to cross over towards the boy she's attracted to, are just a couple samples of perfect expressiveness without words.As opposed to the main bulk of Hollywood movies lately, in which most of the female characters are more or less displayed as tits and ass, this one manages to portray women as the truly marvelous creatures they are; deep, complex beings, strong and fragile, beautiful and insecure at once, a rainbow of emotional paradoxes.Don't get me wrong, I enjoy tits and ass in a film as much as the next guy, but most of the time you can't help feeling that a lot of female characters miss a central piece of their personality puzzle, across a lot of movies.
However, we have read and/or seen other Jane Austen books or adapted movies.
Despite the presence of a sterling ensemble of proved actors, there's just something ultimately patronizing to viewers of either gender when a filmmaker needs to wrap up the numerous loose threads of the omnibus plot into a neatly tied bow at the end.The multi-decked story is a pure Harlequin romance fantasy bringing together a group of five women and one man into a monthly book club in, of all places, Sacramento (though it was filmed in LA).
The den mother is Bernadette, a fiftyish, six-times-married free spirit who decides to start the book club to cheer up longtime friend Sylvia, facing the breakup of her twenty-plus year marriage, and new acquaintance Prudie, a young high school French teacher with an insensitive husband.
Joining the clutch is Bernadette and Sylvia's good friend Jocelyn, a dog breeder who has already given up on having possible long-term relationships (just like Austen's "Emma"); Sylvia's daredevil lesbian daughter Allegra, who treats love and sports in the same risk-taking manner; and Grigg, a software whiz and science-fiction geek who has never read Austen before.
With a fine ensemble cast of actors, this dramatic comedy attempts to offer its viewers with no less than four storylines, a wife as a French high school teacher whose husband ignores her, a wife whose husband is having an affair, her gay daughter as a risktaker, a single solitary middle age woman whose dog has just died, and a young, single man who is into science fiction is introduced to Jane Austen.
I would classify this a dramedy more than a romantic comedy following the tangled lives and loves of five California women and one man who form a book club to study the work of Jane Austin.You don't really need to know Austin books to understand this movie (which is a good thing) we just follow some very likable people through 6 months and 6 books which includes divorce, depression, loneliness, missed opportunities, bad choices, distraction and lust.
Also I like how the movie suggests through the story that Jane Austen isn't only limited to the female readers, and in fact can be useful in respect of viewing what's happening in one's life.
Chick flick about five women in California (and one guy) who get together once a month to discuss a Jane Austen book they all read.
Based on the novel of the same name by Karen Joy Fowler, this film is about six Californians – five women and one man – who start a book club to discuss Jane Austen's novels.
The remaining members of the cast – Maggie Grace as Sylvia's daughter daredevil daughter Allegra, Kathy Baker as the matriarchal six- time divorcée Bernadette, Emily Blunt as the buttoned up and discontented French teacher Prudie, and Hugh Dancy as the absolutely adorable Grigg – all fitted perfectly into their roles, and the main cast is rounded out by Jimmy Smits, as Sylvia's philandering husband Daniel, Marc Blucas as Prudie's insensitive husband Dean (although I thought Dean was a more likable character than Prudie!), and Kevin Zegers as a student who Prudie falls for.
Jimmy Smits was actually my main reason for wanting to see this film, as I think he is rather lovely, but I was charmed by the whole cast, and Hugh Dancy has a new fan!I would heartily recommend this film, whether or not you are a fan of Jane Austen (you do not need to have read the novels to watch this film) – it's a definite keeper for me, and one I shall be watching again..
You probably know that the story is about six people who are all having different problems in their lives, and how they meet each month to discuss a different novel by Jane Austen.
As I generally like movies from Jane Austen novels, I thought it would be great.
The characters became more and more interesting as the movie went on and I enjoyed the layering of the different emotions and stories.For me, the ensemble cast was good, but Kathy Bates, Maria Bello, and Emily Blunt stood out, especially Emily Blunt.
It was an intense and beautiful performance.I always promise myself after watching a Jane Austen movie that I am going to read the novels when I get a chance.
It follows several middle-class Californians who (like this film's intended audience) love Austen's writing and insight into human relationships.After Sylvia's (Amy Brenneman) marriage falls apart, her friends start a book club to distract her.
For instance, Allegra's story is OK on its own but becomes more fun if you realize that she parallels the character of Marianne from "Sense and Sensibility." My favorite scenes involve all six club members ostensibly discussing Austen's books but really using them as code to talk about their own relationships.
It reminds us of how relevant Austen's work still is.Still, "The Jane Austen Book Club" often feels more like a competent but not ground-breaking TV series than a feature film.
The episodic structure (each section of the film is devoted to a different Austen novel) and relatively large cast of characters seem to belong to television, and since the movie juggles so many story lines it can't develop them deeply.
Although romantic to think about, Austen's books, characters, and plots were never that simple (this storyline happens late in the film and was just too pat).There were some pretty funny moments.
But that's about it for the comedic side.An interesting take on Karen Fowler's novel by the same name, The Jane Austen Book Club probably reads better than it comes across on film.
Six-time married Bernadette (Kathy Baker) meets distressed Prudie (Emily Blunt) and decides to form a Jane Austen book club with six people for the six Austen books.
I liked the Jane Austen Book Club, it was a really charming tale of 6 people (5 women and 1 male) that get together to read Jane Austin's complete works.
Other members are Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), whose lawyer husband (Jimmy Smits) has gone off with a co-worker, her lesbian daughter Allegra, teacher Prudie (Emily Blunt) who is neglected by her husband and fancies one of her students Trey (Kevin Zegers), and one male, Grigg (Hugh Dancy with a good American accent), a successful businessman and science fiction fan who Jocelyn is trying to get interested in Sylvia but who actually fancies control freak Jocelyn herself.The group plow through all six Austen novels, which come to be seen by them as lessons in manners.
Bernadette, a Californian lady that loves the works of Jane Austen proposes to start a book club in which each member would lead the discussion of one of the six novels that must be read.
Those familiar with Jane Austen's six novels will get more (but not necessarily much more) out of this movie, but it's people who have experienced book clubs that will really get a kick out of it.
"Club" uses as its inspiration the stories written by Jane Austen, one of literature's most interesting societal observers, her own personal life becoming secondary to her analysis of what was the main components of her contemporary society.In this film, Maria Bello and Emily Blunt manage to shine a bit brighter than the rest of a very inspired cast.
"The Jane Austen Book Club" is a charming, light film that manages to find its center and embraces literature, life, and the many emotions that are common to people throughout time.
I read the book of this before seeing the film (AND when I had read some, but not all, all of Jane Austen's novels).
Good movie, the story and characters parallel what Jane Austen might have written..
You can tell by just the premise: a group of woman (and one man), gather to read all of the Jane Austen books and learn about life and love at the same time.