The Jane Austen Book Club (film)

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The Jane Austen Book Club
Movie poster for The Jane Austen Book Club
Directed by	Robin Swicord
Produced by	John Calley Julie Lynn Jonathan McCoy Lisa Medwid Diana Napper Kelly Thomas
Written by	Robin Swicord (screenplay) Karen Joy Fowler (novel)
Starring	Maria Bello Emily Blunt Kathy Baker Amy Brenneman Maggie Grace Hugh Dancy Kevin Zegers Jimmy Smits Lynn Redgrave Nancy Travis
Music by	Aaron Zigman
Cinematography	John Toon
Editing by	Maryann Brandon
Release date(s)	September 9, 2007
Language	English
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Jane Austen Book Club is 2007 romantic drama film directed by Robin Swicord, who also adapted the screenplay from the 2004 novel of the same name which was written by Karen Joy Fowler. The film stars Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace, and Jimmy Smits. The film is about six people from California who form a book club to discuss Jane Austen novels. The film premiered September 9, 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival^[1] The film was also shown at the Dietrich Theater Fall Film Festival in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania on September 14, 2007. The film opened in limited release in the United States on September 21, 2007. It was rated PG-13 by the MPAA "for mature thematic material, sexual content, brief strong language and some drug use."

1 Cast
2 Plot
3 Trivia
4 Critical reception
5 Box office performance
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Cast

Maria Bello as Jocelyn
Emily Blunt as Prudie Drummond
Kathy Baker as Bernadette
Hugh Dancy as Grigg Harris
Amy Brenneman as Sylvia Avila
Maggie Grace as Allegra Avila
Kevin Zegers as Trey
Marc Blucas as Dean Drummond
Lynn Redgrave as Mama Sky
Jimmy Smits as Daniel Avila
Parisa Fitz-Henley as Corinne Mahern
Gwendoline Yeo as Dr. Samantha Yep
Nancy Travis as Cat Harris

[edit] Plot

The six central characters represent people in Jane Austen's six published novels. According to writer/director Robin Swicord, the connections are:

Bernadette (Kathy Baker): Mrs. Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Gardiner is one of the few positive maternal figures in Austen's works, a sharp deviation from the weak or scattered mothers in the other books. Bernadette mothers the younger women in the book club and leads them through the discussion of Pride and Prejudice. A consummate romantic, she has had six husbands.

Sylvia (Amy Brenneman): Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. Recently separated from her philandering lawyer husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits), Sylvia lives with her 20-year-old daughter Allegra and two unseen sons, Andy and Diego. She leads the book club through the Mansfield Park discussion and fiercely defends Fanny's steadfast devotion to Edmond, although Allegra says Fanny is boring. Sylvia clings to her belief in steadfast love and devotion, and eventually reconciles with Daniel.

Jocelyn (Maria Bello): Emma. Jocelyn, a happily unmarried breeder of pedigree dogs, plays matchmaker for Sylvia and Grigg after Sylvia's divorce. She denies her own feelings for Grigg to ensure Sylvia's happiness, but Grigg has other ideas.

Prudie (Emily Blunt): Anne Elliot in Persuasion. Like Anne, Prudie feels out of touch with her family, including her clueless husband Dean (Marc Blucas) and her abusive mother Mama Sky (Lynn Redgrave). She teaches high school French and frequently annoys the Book Club members by dropping French phrases. Prudie's life begins to parallel Persuasion when she falls for one of her students while helping him practice his lines for the play Brigadoon.

Grigg (Hugh Dancy): Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, and all misunderstood male characters in Austen's six books. Like Catherine, Grigg is introduced to a whole new world when Jocelyn invites him to join the Book Club. An Austen novice, Grigg grew up with three older sisters and escaped the female-dominated household by reading science fiction novels with his father. Grigg is the comedic foil to Jocelyn and Prudie's serious takes on the books; he even transforms his suburban home into a gothic haunted house when it's his turn to lead the group in discussion of Northanger Abbey.

Allegra (Maggie Grace): Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. In contrast to her reserved mother Sylvia, 20-year-old Allegra is a free spirit. She meets most of her lovers after surviving death-defying accidents (breaking her arm while skydiving, a concussion after a rock climbing fall), as Marianne does in the book. When Allegra's lover Corinne betrays her, she starts to embrace sense over reckless sensibility, but her zest for life stays strong. Allegra designs jewelry and sells it on her website.

[edit] Trivia

Kathy Baker was originally slated to play Prudie's dysfunctional mother, Mama Sky. After Robin Swicord transferred Baker to the role of mother-figure Bernadette, Lynn Redgrave took over Mama Sky's part.

As a nod, "The Buffy Convention," referring to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, relates directly to Marc Blucas' role as Riley Finn on the show.

[edit] Critical reception

As of October 20, 2007 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 69% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 86 reviews.^[2] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.^[3]

[edit] Box office performance

The film was released September 21, 2007 in the United States and Canada and grossed $148,549 in 25 theaters its opening weekend. In its third week of release, it opened in wide release, expanding to 1,232 theaters and grossed $1,343,596, ranking #14 at the box office.^[4]

The film grossed a total of $6,466,317 worldwide — $3,575,227 in the United States and Canada and $2,891,090 elsewhere.^[5]