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The cast of The Jane Austen Book Club.

‘Book Club’ has more sensibility than sense

It’s called “The Jane Austen Book Club.” But it’s a lot like a pumpkin spice frappuccino with extra sugar and extra cream. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll leave with foam on your nose. So cute. As a friend said on the way out: At least no books were harmed in the making of this movie. And he’s right. But that’s only because no one really tried.

Robin Swicord’s movie is so respectful of Austen that it doesn’t challenge her eminence with many ideas of its own. Five Sacramento women and one man form a group devoted to discussing the author’s six novels, and, inevitably, the lives of Swicord’s characters take on some of the complications of Austen’s.

For Swicord, Austen is a religious denomination, and her novels, as one character flippantly observes, comprise a bible. The religion just needs a better church. For instance, the opening credits play over a harried montage of mishaps - dropped laptops, vending machines that don’t vend, the parking spot stolen just as you were about to pull in. It feels less like Jane Austen and more a prelude to a song Alanis Morissette never got around to writing.

Swicord adapted the movie from Karen Joy Fowler’s novel, and both are ambitious works of fluff devoted to a bourgeois posse. After 20-odd years of marriage, Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) has just been dumped, and all she can think about is her husband (Jimmy Smits). Her unmarried best friend, Jocelyn (Maria Bello), tries to set up Sylvia with the lone man in the group, a rich tech-services guy named Grigg (Hugh Dancy), who’s actually hot for Jocelyn. Obviously, she wants him, too, but doesn’t exactly know it. Sylvia’s thrill-seeking daughter, Allegra (Maggie Grace), is prone to tumbling off walls, out of planes, and into love with cute girls.

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New layout!

As you can see, our old layout is gone. I’ve been working on a new layout all week and I’ve finally gotten it up. There are things that will need tweaking, of course, but it is up for the most part.

Brand new scans!

I have just added brand new scans to the gallery. Hugh in Z!nk, an article and photos!

Evening!

I’ve been lucky enough to receive a media packet for Evening from Focus Features. I’ve uploaded the images of Hugh from the movie. You can see two different clips from the movie on YouTube here and here. See the official trailer here.