Review of The Jane Austen Book Club (2007) by Spangle — 08 Jan 2017

The Jane Austen Book Club is a chick flick. With a "girly" writer as the basis of this club, the main draw here is the feel good nature, the relationships, and the tearjerking happiness of it all. As with many chick flicks, it is sappy, unoriginal, predictable, and simplistic. Yet, it is equally irresistible. It is filled with joy, easy to watch, funny, and sweet. With solid characters, fun references to Austen's work, and a largely infectious atmosphere, it is admittedly hard to enjoy this film without having read Jane Austen. That said, I have not read her novels, but have watched some of the films. Close enough?

Starring a large cast including Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Hugh Dancy, Amy Brenneman, Jimmy Smits, Maggie Grace, and Marc Blucas, the film depicts women going through a variety of marital issues. From adultery, to lust, to young love, to no love, to loneliness, The Jane Austen Book Club goes through everything you can think of when it comes to relationships. However, its greatest achievement is its characters. Authentic, real, and well developed for having so many of them, it is the characters that allow the film to be successful and to have a satisfying pay-off at the end. The acting goes hand-in-hand with this with solid performances across the board. In particular, Bello is great. Portraying a woman who has given up on love and accepted that she is meant to be alone, she is very good in bringing to life this woman who has this element of her awoken when she meets a man.

That said, the film is imperfect. Certainly incredibly neat with a cheesy happy ending, The Jane Austen Book Club may create realistic characters, but it avoids realistic relationships in fear that it may become too unhappy. Now, the film uses this bubbly happiness to make solid jokes and parallel the work of Austen and the jokes often work. The film also is decidedly pro-female and anti-male. A man cheats on his wife, an awful act, and he is looked down upon. A woman contemplates sleeping with a high school boy who she teaches and it is her husband's fault for not reading Jane Austen and for not fighting his boss over a business trip. Now, since it is a chick flick, these moments are negligible and to be expected. That said, it did feel particularly egregious here. The film's portrayal of its lesbian characters is also a little awkward, opting for titillating over realistic. That said, the characters are better written than many other lesbians and treated very fairly by other characters in the film. However, the closing shot of them having sex and the camera panning down a woman's body seems to be focusing on making it arousing, rather than simply a regular act.

That said, The Jane Austen Book Club is a pretty inoffensive, safe, and by-the-book chick flick. Fortunately, it feels lively, fun, and is thoroughly enjoyable enough to make the cliches it follows feel fresh. With good performances, authentic characters, and a great blend of the work of Austen in a modern setting, the film should appeal to fans of the legendary author. I imagine that finding references, similar characters, or similar situations, would prove to be a fun exercise for serious fans of Jane Austen. For non-fans, the film is still greatly rewarding. While a palatable chick flick for men, it is also funny, sweet, and incredibly effective at making you smile at the end.