Film:  The Jane Austen Book Club

Studio:    Mockingbird Pictures; Sony Pictures Classics

Director:  Robin Swicord

Principal Actors:  Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace, Hugh Dancy

Release:  2007; On DVD released February 5, 2008

Film length: 106 minutes

Rating: PG-13

3 Stars

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner

The Jane Austen Book Club begins with a great premise:  A book discussion group dedicated to all Jane Austen, only Jane Austen in an effort to distract two members from their problems.  After all, as Bernadette (Kathy Baker) says, Jane Austen is "the perfect antidote to life."

The gathering includes Bernadette; Prudie (Emily Blunt); Jocelyn (Mario Bello), who has recently held a funeral service for a beloved dog; Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), whose husband, Daniel (Jimmy Smits) has just announced he is seeing another woman and wants a divorce; and Sylvia and Daniel's daughter, Allegra (Maggie Grace), a young lesbian who keeps breaking her heart in relationships and breaking other body parts in various daredevil adventures.  Bernadette insists there must be six members of the group, so each of Austen's six books will have a discussion leader.  Jocelyn invites a science-fiction buff, Grigg (Hugh Dancy) to round out the group.  Through the course of the film, each character deals with a situation reminiscent of an Austen plot line while they read and discuss the books.  

Written as well as directed by Robin Swicord, the film has enough intellect behind it to avoid the label of a mere "chick flick."  But it just falls flat.  It is difficult to follow the different characters at first.  A simple technique of using their names until characterization was established would have helped greatly.  I found myself making notes such as "Jimmy Smits' wife and daughter," "woman who buried her dog," in an effort to keep track, simply because their names were not mentioned.  Identity eventually became established, but characterization never did completely.  Through several trying situations, such as Prudie's relationship with her mother, Daniel and Sylvia's marriage breaking up, there was little emotion projected.  It was difficult to care about any of these people.  This is more a function of the writing and direction than of the acting talent of the cast.  I wondered why a great talent such as Jimmy Smit was given so little to do.  Hugh Dancy was charming when he had an opportunity to be so.  Katy Baker's Bernadette had the promise of being a fun, flamboyant character, but had too few moments.  It is a testimony to a great writer-that being Austen-that her characters did come to life through the brief scenes of discussion of her books.  A one-sentence reference to Mr. Darcy filled the imagination in a way that time on screen with the people discussing him could not.

There are some good lines in the screenplay.  As Daniel announces his relationship with another woman, he suggests divorce because "there's a logic to quitting while we're ahead."  Acknowledging Austen's works bring some problems a little too close to home, one character asserts:  "Reading Jane Austen is a frickin' minefield!"  Pointing out Jocelyn's problems with relationships, Grigg states:  "You just want to be obeyed.  That's why you have dogs."

But a few clever lines and some pithy discussions of Austen's works are not enough to make a film from characters that fail to engage.  Viewers interested in fascinating characters and the works of Jane Austen would find their time better spent passing on this film and, instead, reading the works themselves or watching some of the fine film adaptations available.

Special features include Commentary by the cast and crew; behind-the scenes; featurettes, and deleted scenes.