The Jane Austen Book Club

Name: The Jane Austen Book Club
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: September 21, 2007
Duration: 106 min
Rating: 61
Cast: Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Kathy Baker

2007

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Ratings

See All

6.4

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.4	Your Score
6.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

The Jane Austen Book Club

Now Playing: The Jane Austen Book Club

Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: September 21, 2007 | PG-13

Starring: Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Kathy Baker

Summary: Six book-club members, six Austen books, and six story-lines are interwoven over six months in the busy modern setting of Sacramento, where city and suburban sprawl meet natural beauty. While the contemporary stories never slavishly parallel the Austen plots, the six characters find echoes, predictions, warnings, and wisdom about their ownSix book-club members, six Austen books, and six story-lines are interwoven over six months in the busy modern setting of Sacramento, where city and suburban sprawl meet natural beauty. While the contemporary stories never slavishly parallel the Austen plots, the six characters find echoes, predictions, warnings, and wisdom about their own trajectories within Austen's beloved narratives. (Sony Pictures Classics)… Expand

Director: Robin Swicord

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 106 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert

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." Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Maitland McDonagh

Neither trite nor pandering, and that's what makes the film better than most of its peers. Read full review

Peter Rainer

The entire enterprise ultimately seems designed to turn Austen into a self-help guru. Read full review

Rick Groen

The novels remain a witty portrait of life; this flick is just a study in preciousness. Read full review

James Berardinelli

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. Read full review

Empire Angie Errigo

Quite a nice little relationship comedy-drama, but essentially for an audience of what the French charmingly call ‘women of a certain age’. Totally not the Superbad set, then. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

It's almost impossible for a movie to go irrevocably wrong during the opening credits, but the ceaselessly irritating The Jane Austen Book Club does just that. Read full review

SEE ALL 28 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

Omid975

Sep 21, 2014

Watching The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), it constantly crossed my mind that to start one club of my own with people I know on Skype, but of course about movies! The actors have so greatly played in a story that has been perfectly chaptered and yet of course keeps the continuity of life andWatching The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), it constantly crossed my mind that to start one club of my own with people I know on Skype, but of course about movies! The actors have so greatly played in a story that has been perfectly chaptered and yet of course keeps the continuity of life and love among five couple of people, six of whom have started a club reading the six novels by Jane Austen. I have personally never read her novels, although tempted, just have watched the 1996 version of the movie of her Sense and Sensibility over 20 times perhaps. Jane was never married but somehow she has managed to create a great atmosphere of dramatic love and romance between men and woman maintaining the dignity and pride in the meaning of self-respect in women. In this amazingly cinematographed peaceful work of art, a six-time-married old woman gathers her friends and someone else whom they just let in, to form a club so that they would cheer up their friends who have just lost the love their lives; one loses a dog, the other divorcing from the husband. They don’t know what is yet to come but they passionately read each book in a month. Each title of the novels isn’t so far from what its picker’s going through in his/her personal life and although picking process may sound coincidental for some of them, it still works out for each and every one of them.
I recollect having things read and understood about Jane Austen like she was a self-controlling confident woman with very powerful beliefs that a woman is as strong as man but what for sure is that she was not a lesbian, however, Allegra (Maggie Grace) jokes about a theory that maybe one of her book’s characters was a lesbian. We know that she is one and even though it’s been evoked so nicely by Maggie, it would make it more interesting to see that she also has heterosexual preference.
Feminism is not an issue in this movie, it is rather about feminine life and obviously the relationships in it. However, it’s not merciless about men’s lives! Hugh Dancy as Grigg joins them and portraits a man’s understanding of Jane Austen who likes comic books and used to think of her novels as being girlish and now growing not only to like them also criticizing the characters of them carefully. The Ironies are raised when he wants to prove that the woman she likes is not happy and that she’s just alone like Jane and wants to be in control.
Decisions are taken at the last moment before making a fatal mistake based on Jane’s characters self-control mentioned in her novels. Sense and Sensibility finds its Maryanne modernized, flying in the unlimited vast field of imagination, daring and falling free, only that here it happens for real through skydiving! Betrayal and regret, departure and reunion, and of course hatred and love are all the materials that Jane Austen and her club are perfectly evocating and that’s probably one of the many reasons that this might not be last time I have been watching this movie, perhaps next time may be sooner than I make my own movie club!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SteveT.

Oct 5, 2007

A classy adaptation of a highly readable novel. High marks to all involved.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

JorgeM.

Oct 15, 2007

I did not read the book, but as a guy I enjoyed the film sooo much. Emily Blunt rules!

1 of 1 users found this helpful

DuaneD.

Oct 9, 2007

If you're expecting a great movie you'll be disappointed. But the plot is clever, the dialogue is amusing and the acting is better than this film deserves. It's entertaining and usually that's enough.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

RegOz

Jan 28, 2012

This is not a great movie but it is a nice one; although there were some things that were not very belieavable. This movie is the type of film you should watch just expecting to have some entertainment and not much thinking. Be aware that this movie may not suit every single taste and sinceThis is not a great movie but it is a nice one; although there were some things that were not very belieavable. This movie is the type of film you should watch just expecting to have some entertainment and not much thinking. Be aware that this movie may not suit every single taste and since it is a bit slow you may not be able to finish it. The best thing about this movie are the performances, because the plot in itself is not good enough. Two words about the conclusion of the movie: it feels a bit false. I am giving it a 6 because I enjoyed it but I wouldn't watch it again,… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

ChadS.

Oct 20, 2007

Grigg(Hugh Dancy) is a science-fiction fan who tries to convince Jocelyn(Maria Bello), the literary snob, that a novelist like Ursula McGuinn is a good writer, period; not just a genre writer. "The Jane Austen Book Club" has an undeveloped academic side because there indeed are learned men Grigg(Hugh Dancy) is a science-fiction fan who tries to convince Jocelyn(Maria Bello), the literary snob, that a novelist like Ursula McGuinn is a good writer, period; not just a genre writer. "The Jane Austen Book Club" has an undeveloped academic side because there indeed are learned men and women who argue for speculative fiction as being undervalued. But the film doesn't back up its argument for genre fiction as literature, not if Grigg is going to say things like a one-volume compendium of Jane Austen novels as being sequels to "Northhanger Abbey", and that "The Empire Strikes Back"(George Lucas films being the low-end of sci-fi) shares a comparable plot point with "Pride and Prejudice". However, this film very subtly introduces the notion of the chick-flick as science fiction, especially when Prudie(Emily Blunt) convinces Dean(Marc Blucas) to read "Persuasion", patching up their unhappy marriage in the process. Literature can't save a marriage; a jock doesn't change his stripes overnight. What might've worked in the Karen Joy Fowler novel, doesn't all translate well on the screen.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

PatC.

Jan 4, 2008

A very boring self satisfied and pretentious film.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

SEE ALL 9 REVIEWS