THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
In Love and Longing, There's Persuasion, Pride, and Prejudice
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "The Jane Austen Book Club"
By Omar P.L. Moore/September 21, 2007
Austen's Main Attraction: Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) and Daniel (Jimmy Smits), a
married couple in Robin Swicord's "The Jane Austen Book Club", which opened
today in New York and Los Angeles, and expands across other U.S. cities in the
coming weeks (including San Francisco on October 5.) (Photo: Sony Pictures
Classics)
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Imagine a situation where six strangers meet each week at a book
club and that several of them either fall in love, rediscover or lose
friendships and relationships, or just pontificate about love and Jane Austen.
Not hard to imagine, and when watching first-time feature film director Robin
Swicord's "The Jane Austen Book Club", all of these elements and a lot less are
in play. The film displays an all-star cast (Jimmy Smits, Amy Brenneman,
Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Hugh Dancy, Emily Blunt, Lynn Redgrave among others)
and uses them wisely throughout the film's near-two hours. Adapted from
Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 best-selling book of the same name by Swicord (whom
herself has adapted "Little Women" and "Memoirs Of A Geisha" for the big
screen), "Book Club" is a comedy-drama that is the quintessential
thinking-woman's romance about chance, communication, fate, and yes, Austen.
Set in Southern California, the film (which opened today in New York and Los
Angeles) chronicles six beings in flux. Daniel (Smits) and Sylvia (Brenneman)
are a married couple who face challenges in their relationship; their lesbian
daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace) is involved in a committed loving and stable
relationship; Jocelyn (Bello) is hardened to love's failures, cynical to the
utmost; Grigg (Dancy) is reticent, a man awkward in his approach to women yet
outgoing as well; Prudie (Blunt) is enmeshed in a loveless and barely
communicative marriage to Dean (Marc Blucas), while Bernadette (Baker) hopes
that her long-needed and lost love and yearnings will be fulfilled. These
individuals (sans Dean and Daniel) meet for a weekly kibbitz over coffee (and
fantasy daydreaming) reading Jane Austen's legendary literary works including
Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and numerous
others over several months.
Inevitably, parallel narratives unfold as the Austen book club members feel the
chemistry and lines embedded in Austen's compelling stories of life, duty,
longing, responsibility and passion manifesting themselves in reality.
Crises occur, drama ensues and irony and love dot the California landscape.
In some ways, "Book Club" is fairly predictable, but it is a pleasure to watch
this ensemble so comfortable and at home with their characters. None of
these noteworthy actors goes out of their way to sell their characters; the
situations they find themselves in as characters sell themselves. Robin
Swicord's first-time direction is smooth and assured, and apart from one visual
effect near the end, the film is wisely stripped of any visual cues that would
even mildly taint the story, which is told appropriately in chapters. The
film is filled with color and all the brightness and energy that a Southern
California setting can muster, and good acting from all of the participants,
especially Smits, Bello, Baker and Dancy.
The screenplay by Swicord is air-tight with all the real-life ups and downs that
love can offer, and although the ending of the film is tidy, it never strays
from being realistic, even if the conventions of a two-hour feature format seem
to constrain or compel a tidiness that might leave a manufactured feeling in
some audiences. One of the most admirable things about "The Jane Austen
Book Club" is that it is light-hearted without being self-conscious or
self-important, and interesting without being pretentious or grandstanding.
There is a breeziness, a hope, an effortless-ness, in both the acting and
direction that don't call attention to themselves.
For an enjoyable time for both men and women at the movies, one can do a whole
lot worse than Robin Swicord's sunny celluloid delight.
"The Jane Austen Book Club" is rated PG-13 by the Motion
Picture Association of America for mature thematic material, sexual content,
brief strong language and some drug use. The film's duration is one hour
and 46 minutes. The film expands its release next Friday and next month to
other U.S. cities, including San Francisco.
Extra: The Persuasion of
Robin Swicord, director and writer of "The Jane Austen Book Club"
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