"A Flick for the Erudite Chick"

I got that title from a movie review which pretty much sums it up in one sentence.

As an afterthought to a comment I made on Onyxx's post about the secret of Albus Dumbledore, I'm sharing the things I took note of while watching the movie The Jane Austen Book Club. Trailer and movie info here.

• Opening quote of the movie: "Is not general incivility the very essence of love?" [from Pride & Prejudice]. Oh, no. Is it?

• Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) noted that her best friend Jocelyn (Maria Bello) has never been married because of her "contempt for anyone who settles for anything less than the perfect love." Well, I can't blame Jocelyn.

• Sylvia was married to Daniel (Jimmy Smits) for 25 plus years before he had a midlife crisis and dumped her for another woman ("who isn't even young!"). I'm all for writing letters and I easily get touched by well-written letters, but after the harsh way he admitted to infidelity ("I'm not leaving her; it's nonnegotiable"), I don't think he should get away with it that easy.

• Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a high school French teacher who has never been to France. Getting more and more disillusioned every day about her Neanderthal husband (who "thinks Austen is the capital of Texas"), she contemplates about having an affair with a good-looking student just because he "looks at her like he's the spoon and she's the dish of ice cream." Despite her self-pitying and neurotic ways, Prudie still got some sense & sensibility to know which way to go.

• Allegra (Maggie Grace), the youngest and the prettiest member of the club, is the lesbian daughter of Sylvia who goes with the extremes in life and love. Her easy-going nature clashes with the prim-and-proper Prudie, but in the end what counts the most is that she's a good daughter. Well, if you're the kind of parent who thinks being kept in the dark about your child's sky diving adventures is acceptable.

• Bernadette (Kathy Baker) is the oldest of the bunch. She's the one who's most in love with love, despite being previously married six times. I liked the fact that she's very supportive of her friends and seems to be the source of calm for the others. She's at peace, with the world and herself. I think it's nice to grow old that way.  

• Jocelyn has never even been in love. She spots Grigg (Hugh Dancy) and immediately sets him up with Sylvia, oblivious to the fact that it was her that he likes. He gives her his favorite science fiction books in exchange of his willingness to read girly books for her. She ignores his books, prejudiced that science fiction is not about real people; he concludes that she chooses dogs over human relationships because she just wants to be obeyed.

• Allegra believes love makes you crazy; Sylvia thinks it's not an excuse for bad behavior.  Jocelyn likes Austen because she's all about order and self-control ("nothing unwise"); Grigg notes that it's better to be unafraid to love - not avoid it just because it's too messy or too out of control.

Did I just give it all away? It seems I really liked the movie.  But it's not without flaws and I still wouldn't recommend it for everyone. No, you don't really have to be a Janeite. But you have to be passionate about books (and talking about them). It's about a book club, after all, and not about a galaxy far, far away.

[I'm not sure if it will be shown in theaters here. It might be available later on DVD.]