| | | You Don't Have to Know the Books to Be in the Club.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, Subtitled, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
Six months. Six novels. Six members. The Jane Austen Book Club takes reading the classics to new heights of passion in this romantic comedy featuring an all-star cast. When five women and one man get together to discuss the English writer's beloved novels, they realize the heartaches of Emma, Mr. Darcy and the Bennet sisters are not so different from their own. Finding comfort, wit and wisdom from the pages and each other, they discover that, in matters of love, all they need to ask is: What would Jane do?
"Hilarious!" Karen Durbin, Elle Magazine
"Neither trite nor pandering, and that's what makes the film better than most of its peers." Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide
"...this is comfort food, plain and simple, and achieves its modest goals in nearly effortless fashion." Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian
"Sense and sexuality! A celebration!" Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"An entertaining, carefully assembled piece of clockwork." Stephen Holden, The New York Times
Editor's Note
Life imitates art in this adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler's bestselling novel about a book group reading the work of Jane Austen. Each of the people in the group is at a different stage of life: there's Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), whose husband has just left her for another woman, and her daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace), who's looking for a woman herself. Bernadette (Kathy Baker) has six marriages under her belt, while Jocelyn's (Maria Bello) most significant relationship is with her dog. New to the group of friends are Prudie (Emily Blunt), a teacher who is unhappy with her marriage, and Grigg (Hugh Dancy), the group's only man--a sci-fi fan invited by Jocelyn to take Sylvia's mind off her failed marriage. As they make their way through Austen's novels, they discover that the writer's work is just as relevant in the 21st century as it was in the 19th. The group has its own Emma, and a sparring would-be couple bears striking resemblance to Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB succeeds largely thanks to the strength of its cast. Bello is better known for dramatic roles in films such as THE COOLER and THE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, but she does an excellent job with this film's lighter tone. As know-it-all Prudie, Blunt steals just as many scenes as she did in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Though it might seem like a clubhouse with a "No Boys Allowed" sign, the men in the movie hold their own with the female cast. Jimmy Smits, Marc Blucas, and Kevin Zegers play supporting roles, but it's Dancy who deserves the most praise. As Griggs struggles to woo one of the women in the group, Dancy easily wins the heart of the audience with his geeky charm.
| Features | Audio: English, French | | Cast & Crew Audio Commentary | | Deleted Scenes | | Dubbed: French | | Featurettes: Behind-The-Scenes Of The Jane Austen Book Club, The Life Of Jane Austen, The Book Club - Deconstructed, & Walking The Red Carpet - Los Angeles Premiere | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Jane Austen Book Club - DVD Review By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 1/25/2008 8:25 PM | |
You need neither a deep appreciation for author Jane Austen nor an understanding of her six novels to recognize that The Jane Austen Book Club stinks. A chick-lit-flick, Book Club is poorly directed by Robin Swicord from her own inconsistent adaptation of Karen Jay Fowler's novel about five women (and one coerced man) who use Austen's novels as a means to escape their broken lives. They cover one book a month, and we roll our eyes as their individual problems mirror the quandaries found in Austen's chapters. The ladies in Swicords cast are perfectly capable....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 9/23/2008 |
| Running Time: 106 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 22515 | | UPC: 00043396225152 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"[A] well-acted, literate adaptation....A tightly knit ensemble piece directed and written by Robin Swicord, the film adroitly shuffles nine characters..." 09/21/2007 p.E13USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "The ensemble cast is strong....Entertaining and, ultimately, endearing." 09/21/2007 p.12D Entertainment Weekly
"There's comfort to be had in the plot geometry of the photogenic adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 best-seller." -- Grade: B 09/28/2007 p.87 Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "Emily Blunt steals the show, wonderful as bookish and buttoned-up 'Persuasion' lover Prudie." 10/19/2007 p.64 Sight and Sound
"[I]t's a superior example of the genre, with high production values, a mostly sharp script and reasonably well-developed characters." 12/01/2007 p.75 Los Angeles Times
"Swicord has a playful sense of humor and a good ear for dialogue..." 09/21/2007 Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "[W]ith a charming cast....Encompassing timeless themes of love and friendship, this provides a welcome escape from the grey realities of life..." 04/01/2008 p.117 ReelViews 7 of 10
The Jane Austen Book Club is an example of how a movie can follow the general plot of a book yet fail to capture the spirit. The problem is a simple one to identify: much of the enjoyment derived from Karen Joy Fowler's novel comes from the way in which it is written, and the manner in which she interweaves subtle references and asides to Austen. Robin Swicord's adaptation is stripped-down and straightforward, and something has been lost in translation. The film comes across like a soap opera and there are too many characters and storylines for any one of them to grab the heart and imagination. The film isn't painful but it is disappointing...Too often, The Jane Austen Book Club feels crowded and rushed as characters and stories vie for screen time. Although the movie doesn't demand familiarity with Austen, it's hard to imagine anyone being attracted to film with this title unless they have an affinity for the 18th century writer. Like other female bonding movies (The Joy Luck Club and Waiting to Exhale leap to mind), this one works only to the degree to which the individual viewer bonds with the characters. The superficiality of the protagonists makes this is a difficult movie to feel more strongly about than a passable diversion. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
The movie is a celebration of reading, and oddly enough that works, even though there is nothing cinematic about a shot of a woman (or the club's one male member) reading a book. Such shots are used as punctuation in the film, where they work like Ozu's "pillow shots," quiet respites from the action. The only drawback to them from my point of view was that all the characters seem to be reading standard editions -- not a Folio Society subscriber among them...I settled down with this movie as with a comfortable book. I expected no earth-shaking revelations and got none, and everything turned out about right, in a clockwork ending that reminded me of the precision the Victorians always used to tidy up their loose ends...It is crucial, I think, that writer-director Swicord (author of the screenplays for "Little Women," "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Perez Family") has created characters who really do seem to have read the books and talk like they have. And she has created a book club that, like all book clubs, is really about its members. Chick Flick indeed! Guys, take your best buddy to see this movie. Tell him, "It's really cool, dude, even though there aren't any eviscerations." - Roger Ebert
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