I'm
hesitant to use the term 'chick flick'; but as a shorthand way
of expressing a general feeling for Robin Swicord's feature
film directing debut, The Jane Austen Book Club, it
largely fits the bill. Certainly, there's a lot of oestrogen
flying around in this film, but by the same token, it's more
than your average 'chick flick'.
Swicord made her name as a screenwriter in Hollywood, penning
the screenplays for films like Little Women, Practical
Magic and Memoirs of a Geisha; so she knows her
way around a story. This is arguably the best realisation of
her work for many a year. Perhaps it was the chance to actually
translate her own words – well, mostly her own –
onto the screen that makes this a success.
As with some of her previous work, Swicord has adapted from
another source – in this case, Karen Joy Fowler's 2004
novel of the same name. Of course, the book was a success and
has many fans, and there had been some talk that they were unlikely
to take kindly to someone messing with the novel. But with a
few neat screenwriting tricks, Swicord has managed to find a
way to film the book and make it an accessible and quite moving.
As a result, even the most strident fan of the novel should
be satisfied.
As the name suggests, the film is about a book club. It's cleverly
broken into six distinct segments – chapters, if you will
- that correspond to the group's discussion of each of Austen's
six novels. The club is started by Bernadette (Kathy Baker)
as a way of distracting her friend Jocelyn (Maria Bello), who's
distraught over the loss of a beloved dog. Before the first
meeting however, one of Jocelyn's friends, Sylvia (Amy Brenneman)
finds she's no longer wanted by her husband (Jimmy Smits). So
the club also provides some companionship for her and her daughter
Allegra (Maggie Grace), a lesbian with an adventurous outlook.
Added into the mix is uptight French teacher Prudie (Emily Blunt)
and the dreamy Grigg (Hugh Dancy), the only male to sign up.
Just how these varied characters interact with each other and
those outside the group is well beyond the scope of this short
synopsis, but suffice to say there's scarcely a dull moment.
And if you know anything about Austen, you'll have a pretty
fair idea that romance plays a large part in the proceedings.
Swicord wisely hasn't set out to mimic the book, but rather
to capture the essence of it, and does that pretty well. The
film fairly zips along, even for a mere male, and the characters
are so engaging, that most audience members will be swept up
in it. The key to the novel was to make the characters' relationships
mirror those in the Austen books; and Swicord achieves the same
result with this film, which is certainly to her great credit.
On
the other hand, some of the direction is a little heavy-handed,
and the ending, while not exactly schmaltzy, certainly has a
liberal and rather self-conscious sprinkling of sugar. But those
quibbles aside, there's plenty to like here. Swicord makes sure
her characters are 'real' (at least as real as movie characters
can be). There's none of the pedestal-placing that similar films
evoke. I was particularly taken with the way Swicord handles
Emily Blunt's character, Prudie. It would have been easy to
make her either a paragon of virtue or a caricature; but Swicord
skilfully navigates through those extremes to make her a character
you can feel real empathy for.
I know it's a small point (and it may have more to do with
budget than anything else), but I was pleased to see that the
characters all lived in 'real' homes; not the kind of Vogue
Living interiors that Hollywood directors seem to impose on
these types of films. It was also gratifying to see that they
also have problems with money, do the grocery shopping and don't
have immaculate taste in clothes.
In the ensemble cast, the women naturally stand out. Emily
Blunt was my personal favourite as the haughty but vulnerable
Prudie; but Amy Brenneman, Kathy Baker and Maria Bello are all
terrific; while relative newcomer Maggie Grace (recently seen
in TV's Lost) gets some nice moments as Allegra. Hugh
Dancy, as the male of the group, gets the most screen time of
the men, but Jimmy Smits and Marc Blucas also make their marks.
The Jane Austen Book Club is unashamedly aimed at
a largely female audience; but it has enough insight into the
human condition to elevate it above the usual standard of such
'chick flicks'. This is an engaging film, sometimes funny, sometimes
sad; but always with something to say. While this is a modest
movie, I liked its lack of pretension and its willingness to
lay its convictions on the line. Austen herself once said, “I
do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me that trouble
of liking them”; but with the characters in this film,
you just can't help but like them.
