All About Jane

The ensemble dramedy The Jane Austen Book Club – about six modern-day California women (actually, five women and one man) who see their lives and romances reflected in the six novels of English author Jane Austen they have chosen for their book club – is a movie about love, about loss, and above all, about the greatness that was the English author.

It is, in short, an absolute delight.

Maria Bello plays Jocelyn, a fortysomething strong woman who likes to breed and show dogs, and more importantly to the plot, a woman who likes being single.

Alright, “likes” might be too arbitrary. She’s single, and although she doesn’t have a man in her life, she doesn’t want one, necessarily, for she believes it’s better to be alone and ill-accompanied.

Her BFF Sylvia (played by Amy Brenneman, of TV’s Private Practice) recently has been dumped unceremoniously by her husband of many of years, so Jocelyn figures she must do something to keep her friend from floundering, from not getting over her ex.

A book club, she figures, will do trick.

It will keep Sylvia focused on something other than her divorce, and it will bring her closer together to her friends, which include her twentysomething daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace, formely of TV’s Lost) and the joyfully spirited Bernadette (Kathy Baker).

Joining the tight quartet are newcomers Prudie (the fantastic Emily Blunt), a tightly wound high school French teacher trapped in a quickly deteriorating marriage, and the boyish Grigg (the beautiful Hugh Dancy), whom Jocelyn decides will prove to be the distraction Sylvia really needs.

All six book club members have joined for very different reasons – and all six soon will learn that even the best laid plans don’t unfold without complications. Through the novels of Austen they will laugh, they will cry, and they will cope.

The Jane Austen Book Club is quite entertaining. It isn’t a chick flick, but rather a touchingly smart and witty movie about the women (and man) who heal through the timelessness of great writing.

My Rating ***

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.