I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s books, and while I liked most of them well enough, I would definitely stop short of calling myself a “fan” of her work. The books just contain far too much romantic pining, scheming, hope, and disappointment for my tastes, though I can see why Austen is a favorite for so many.
Even though I’m not much of a fan, I was still anxious to check out the 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club. From the previews I saw, the premise seemed interesting, and I was encouraged by the generally positive reception from critics. Unfortunately, the final product wasn’t quite what I expected.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The Jane Austen Book Club is an ensemble film that follows the lives of four women as they go through various rough patches. Jocelyn (played by Maria Bello) is a dog breeder who doesn’t have time for men, but claims that she actually enjoys being alone so isn’t actively looking for someone to share her life with. Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) is a 40-something woman whose husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) suddenly tells her that he’s been having an affair with someone from his office and that breaking it off is not an option. Allegra (Maggie Grace), Sylvia and Daniel’s daughter, is looking for the right lesbian lover as she tries to decide what she wants to do with her life. And Bernadette (Kathy Baker) is the free-spirit mother figure whose six previous trips down the altar exemplify her roll-with-it attitude towards love and marriage.
One day Bernadette is in Starbucks when she sees another woman having an emotional crisis. This is Prudie (Emily Blunt), whose husband is the kind of guy who would cancel a trip to Paris because of a basketball game. Seeing Prudie’s pain, as well as the problems her other friends are having, Bernadette gets the idea of forming a book club. But this book club will be different from others. Instead of reading new books, they’ll stick to ones they already know — ones by Jane Austen. They’ll need six members, and each member will be responsible for one of Austen’s books each month.
The other women agree, and Jocelyn invites Grigg Harris (Hugh Dancy), a man she met at a convention, to be the sixth member. Grigg agrees because he’s interested in Jocelyn, but she does it in the hopes of setting Sylvia up to help her get over Daniel.
From that point forward, the film goes on to show parallels between the characters’ lives and the lives of Jane Austen’s characters. If you’re not thoroughly familiar with Austen’s works, then most of the symbolism and comparisons will escape you — as they did me!
My Reaction: Going into The Jane Austen Book Club, I didn’t realize that a working knowledge of Austen’s books would be a prerequisite for enjoying the film. But as I just said, I didn’t understand any of the symbolism, nuances, or parallels between the movie characters and Austen’s characters, so I’m sure a significant part of the film’s charm was lost on me.
According to Wikipedia, the connections are as follows: Bernadette is Mrs. Gardiner from Pride and Prejudice; Sylvia is Fanny Price from Mansfield Park; Jocelyn is Emma from Emma; Prudie is Anne Elliot from Persuasion; Grigg is Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey; and Allegra is Marianne from Sense and Sensibility. And while I do remember the characters from the books, I don’t recall enough details about them for the film parallels to make sense to me.
Beyond that, the film had other problems that prevented me from enjoying it. For example, I didn’t understand all the hostility between Prudie and Allegra. What was that about, and why would Prudie continue coming to the book club when she was obviously the outsider? That situation was uncomfortable and rang false with me. It seems like a minor issue when I’m writing about it now, but while watching the movie, it bugged me to no end.
In addition, I didn’t like how clueless and/or stubborn Jocelyn was. Did she really not see that Grigg was interested in her the whole time, or did she choose to purposely overlook that point because she wanted to set Grigg up with Sylvia? This bothered me greatly, especially since some of their scenes played like those stupid romantic comedies where misunderstandings rule the day simply because the characters refuse to talk to each other.
None of the film’s characters were particularly sympathetic, so I really didn’t care what happened to any of them. The only pairing I was slightly interested in was Jocelyn/Grigg, but the payoff was anticlimactic and boring — just like the rest of the movie.
Overall, I was surprised by how limited of an audience The Jane Austen Book Club will appeal to. It’s not enough simply to have read Austen’s books; apparently, you need to know them backwards and forwards in order to enjoy the show. I give this film 4.5 stars out of 10.