Moviola > Films > The Jane Austen Book Club

The Jane Austen Book Club (12A)   100 mins  

"You don't have to know the books to be in the club."

Today's central California may be far removed from Regency England, but some things never change. We're still every bit as preoccupied with the complexities of marriage, friendship, romantic entanglements, position, and social manners and mores as was Jane Austen at the turn of the 1800s. The Jane Austen Book Club reveals the lives of an ensemble of present-day friends through the witty prism of their literary heroine. Six book club members, six Austen books, six interwoven story lines over six months in the busy modern setting of Sacramento. Each month, the Jane Austen Book Club meets to discuss one of Austen's novels, at Jocelyn's pretty old farmhouse, or Sylvia's comfortable family home in town, or Grigg's spanking-new suburban tract house that's surprisingly full of personality on the inside. The book club even squeezes into a Starbuck's and a hospital room, and enjoys a beach outing in honor of an Austen seaside setting. Austen is the thread that runs through their interconnected lives, as the book club members play out their own stories: the dissolution of Sylvia's settled, married life, and the reinvention of a new Sylvia. The daredevil Allegra who lacks caution in sports and love. The yoga-centered Bernadette, seemingly content to look after everybody else's emotional well-being. Will Prudie figure out how to be a married grownup, or will she chuck it all for an illicit fling? And will Jocelyn ever get over her literary snobbishness and read the Ursula LeGuin sci-fi classics that Grigg keeps urging her to try? As always in Austen, marriage, friendship, and finding one's rightful place in the world are the things that really matter.

"A deliciously light and entertaining drama about people who love to read and aren’t ashamed of talking about their emotions."  Spirituality and Practice

"Everyone is a delight to watch, particularly the adorable Hugh Dancy as Grigg, a sci-fi devotee who's pulled way back from the future as the only male in the group"  San Francisco Chronicle

"Swicord has a playful sense of humor and a good ear for dialogue, and the movie pleasantly accomplishes what it set out to accomplish."  Los Angeles Times

www.sonyclassics.com/thejaneaustenbookclub

Showing:

06-Apr        Ringwood

09-Apr        Sherborne

Last modified: 17-Apr-2008

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