RAINY DAY RENTAL: JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- ER
- Judging Amy
- Lost
- NYPD Blue
- Picket Fences
What do these have in common? The primary cast of the film Jane Austen Book Club is comprised of television veterans from those beloved shows. In order from above: Marc Blucas, Maria Bello, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace, Jimmy Smits and Kathy Baker. The other two leads are British imports Hugh Dancy and Emily Blunt (almost unrecognizable with a brunette bob wig and miles from her scene-stealing performance in The Devil Wears Prada).
Jane Austen Book Club writer/director Robin Swicord is no stranger to literary adaptations; she also penned the screenplays for Memoirs of a Geisha and Little Women. Even though I have read almost all of Jane Austen’s work (I majored in English and studied in London for a semester; it was required reading and I loved it), I just don’t think that the material from Karen Joy Fowler’s original novel was strong enough to sustain a full-length feature. This film would have been much better suited as a television series or made-for-TV movie.
Brief but true. It wasn’t very inspiring. The end.