The Jane Austen Book Club is about five women who join together to form a book club after one of them, Jocelyn (Maria Bello), loses her favourite dog and is wracked with grief. Her two best friends, Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) and Bernadette (Kathy Baker), Sylvia's daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace), and uptight school teacher Prudie (Emily Blunt) decide to be responsible for a book each and read one each month or so. Then Jocelyn meets Grigg (Hugh Dancy), a wealthy sci-fi fan who has never read any Austen, and they decide to include him in the hope that he'll get together with Sylvia who has recently separated from her husband.
The idea of the film is that each of the characters mirrors the main character from the book they have chosen. This is not made explicit, though, and you would only recognise the similarities if you were very familiar with the Austen oeuvre. It's basically a romantic comedy but it's not as fluffy as you might think, there is plenty of both romance and comedy. of course. but there are also real feelings and issues. The writers have done a good job of incorporating Austen's sensibilities into a 21st century world; despite being based around books that were written 400 years ago, this film feels fresh and very contemporary. I liked all the characters and really empathised with them, particularly Prudie, played by Emily Blunt. Blunt looks amazing in this film and conveys Prudie's frustrated desires to heart-breaking effect.
I loved Hugh Dancy too, he ensures Grigg is more than just eye-candy in what is a very female-dominated movie. However it is the strong female cast that really makes this film stand out, each of the five main characters is complex, interesting and sympathetic and they give the film more depth than the average chick-flick.
The idea of the film is that each of the characters mirrors the main character from the book they have chosen. This is not made explicit, though, and you would only recognise the similarities if you were very familiar with the Austen oeuvre. It's basically a romantic comedy but it's not as fluffy as you might think, there is plenty of both romance and comedy. of course. but there are also real feelings and issues. The writers have done a good job of incorporating Austen's sensibilities into a 21st century world; despite being based around books that were written 400 years ago, this film feels fresh and very contemporary. I liked all the characters and really empathised with them, particularly Prudie, played by Emily Blunt. Blunt looks amazing in this film and conveys Prudie's frustrated desires to heart-breaking effect.
I loved Hugh Dancy too, he ensures Grigg is more than just eye-candy in what is a very female-dominated movie. However it is the strong female cast that really makes this film stand out, each of the five main characters is complex, interesting and sympathetic and they give the film more depth than the average chick-flick.