Movie Review for The Jane Austen Book Club

Summary: In modern-day California, six women in a book club find their lives and romances reflected in the six novels of English author Jane Austen.

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
            ...light as a robin's skull, The Jane Austen Book Club is a precision-crafted, designer-tasteful ...

By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
            When The Jane Austen Book Club comes to DVD, it will be perfect for the media rack at Starbucks.

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            ...has more sensibility than sense.

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            The movie is a celebration of reading, and oddly enough that works...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            [Swicord] has created characters who really do seem to have read the books and talk like they hav...

By Matt Pais of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            Much of The Jane Austen Book Club drove me crazy, yet somehow I kinda liked it.:<

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Tasha Robinson of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            The Jane Austen Book Club is an admirable mix of heady and fluffy, the kind of wish-fulfillment f...

By Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            It's a funny conceit, and the actors -- who include Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, and Hugh Dancy -- a...

By Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend.com (7/0)
            Preview and images.

By James Rocchi of Cinematical (7/0)
            The cast's performances and Swicord's sense of tone give it just enough charm to work.

By Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net (7/0)
            Half of me hoped it would end with someone saying, 'Maybe we shouldn't form a Jane Austen Book Cl...

By Brian Orndorf of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            It's a sprawling story of heartbreak and friendship, and while it doesn't pack true passion, it h...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Rob Gonsalves of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            A cozy, tasteful affair about the problems of the well-to-do.

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            Six is the organizing principle and magical number of Robin Swicord's well-crafted and acted narr...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            There's comfort to be had in the plot geometry of The Jane Austen Book Club...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            The movie's sunny demeanor and frivolous (but not dumb!) story make it a winner.

By David Noh of Film Journal International (7/0)
            The ick-making factor of so much pat sentimentality becomes overwhelming well before the final sc...

By Sean O'Connell of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            You need neither a deep appreciation for author Jane Austen nor an understanding of her six novel...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
            [F]eatures one of the most engaging ensemble casts I've seen in a goodly while... So hurrah for t...

By Rick Groen of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            The Jane Austen Book Club could be the start of a genre.

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            Chick-lit flick is hit and miss.

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            So whatever the shortcomings of this literary construct, it remains a joy to experience a movie s...

By Kit Bowen of Hollywood.com (7/0)
            The Jane Austen Book Club is definitely chick lit-turned-chick flick, but an engaging script and ...

By Amy Biancolli of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            The episodes roll by in smooth progression, and the talkiness has the round, impassioned tones of...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Stax of IGN Movies (7/0)
            As involving and heartwarming as The Jane Austen Book Club is, it's also far too much of a gimmic...

By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            Filled with pithy and funny lines and bursting with subtle but wonderful characters ... undemandi...

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            A strong ensemble cast carries the story.

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (7/0)
            The arch tone coupled with the compassion for the foibles of existence are everywhere in evidence...

By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            Drearily formulaic.

By Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            Thanks to the game cast, notably Bello and Blunt, The Jane Austen Book Club will make for passabl...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            ...a clever look at modern life and love.

By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            Swicord has a playful sense of humor and a good ear for dialogue, and the movie pleasantly accomp...

By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            One won't learn much about Austen from this film, and Austen purists may pop their corsets at the...

By Colin Covert of Minneapolis Star Tribune (7/0)
            The film has an undeniable, easygoing charm. Real life is seldom so pleasingly plotted, but then ...

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/0)
            The movie is a big improvement over the wispy novel, which teetered between being cutesy and bein...

By Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News (7/0)
            This is a comfort film, the on-screen equivalent of mac and cheese -- though with a splash of tru...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Andrew Sarris of New York Observer (7/0)
            The cast alone makes The Jane Austen Book Club good -- though not great -- entertainment for at l...

By Lou Lumenick of New York Post (7/0)
            ...better than it sounds.

By Armond White of New York Press (7/0)
            Despite its high-toned, artsy antecedent, Swicord’s direction lacks fluency: that graceful, imagi...

By Stephen Holden of New York Times (7/0)
            ...such a well-acted, literate adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler¿s 2004 best seller that your impul...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            An ensemble dramedy of manners that wrongly thinks it's clever and insightful, and will curdle th...

By Scott Tobias of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            There's a difference between connecting to a writer's work and reading too much of yourself in it...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Cole Haddon of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
            Everything the recent faux-biopic Becoming Jane got wrong, The Jane Austen Book Club gets right b...

By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            I shudder at the term chick flick but Jane Austen Book Club is a shining example of the genre, re...

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (7/0)
            Attention readers: Here's a dramedy about people who love words.

By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
            ...ultimately far more engaging and entertaining than one had any right to expect.

By Timothy Knight of Reel.com (7/0)
            Engaging but overly glossy.

By Michelle Orange of Reeler (7/0)
            Time was clearly taken here to do better than fine with material that had a sizeable no-brainer a...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            ...formulaic beach-read of a movie populated by one-dimensional cliches...may have seemed merely ...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            ...an example of how a movie can follow the general plot of a book yet fail to capture the spirit...

By Carla Meyer of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
            Director Robin Swicord introduces just enough hustle and bustle to demonstrate that the romantic ...

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            ...a Hollywood-glossy, featherbrained chick flick...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            With all the reflected glory from Austen's books, the movie never truly shines on its own.

By Ruthe Stein of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            Austen devotees are sure to lap up the central premise that her notions of love and friendship ar...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Gina Carbone of Seacoast Newspapers (NH/Maine) (7/0)
            I challenge any man and woman who enjoyed Transformers or Resident Evil to watch The Jane Austen ...

By Paula Nechak of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            ...the actors are good -- especially Bello, Blunt... and Dancy.

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (7/0)
            ...Things never rise above the competent chick-flick level.

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            There's the germ of an interesting idea here, plus a terrific ensemble cast, but it's reduced dow...

By Paul Schrodt of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            The Jane Austen Book Club is pitched as The First Wives Club for coffeehouse intellectuals.

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            A delightful and totally refreshing drama about a book club who become a community of supportive ...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Tom Beer of Time Out New York (4/3)
            The real disappointment is the paint-by-numbers flatness of the contemporary stories and characte...

By Susan Walker of Toronto Star (7/0)
            The script might have slipped into caricature, as often the adaptations of Austen's novels have, ...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            This is Austen lite, but pleasantly so.

By Dennis Harvey of Variety (7/0)
            Cast is first-rate all around, unafraid to play up the annoying, insensitive or self-pitying aspe...

By Ann Hornaday of Washington Post (7/0)
            Everyone is given their due and dignity in this funny, sexy, humanist film that, if it is a chick...

By Prairie Miller of WBAI Web Radio (7/0)
            Can a movie perform a dramatic transplant of the Austen moral sensibilty from the prim and proper...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Daniel M. Kimmel of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (7/0)
            One gets to the end of the film believing in the redemptive power of love, as well as the excitem...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            Utterly pat but never insulting, 'The Jane Austen Book Club' offers cinematic comfort food for sy...

By Penny Walker of Arizona Republic (3/4) No reference
            Despite its flaws, Book Club leaves viewers with that best result of Austen films: a wonderful ac...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (3/4) No reference
            The Jane Austen Book Club simply doesn't know when to shut up. That's true -- for the movie as a ...

By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            An intermittently amusing but mostly improbable comedy about romantically challenged women who de...

By Beth Accomando of KPBS.org (3/4) No reference
            The film lacks the thing that Austen does so well in her books: the ability to examine a small so...

                         Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club
By Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly (4/3) No reference
            A little too schematic and cutesy to be wholly satisfying.

By Connie Ogle of Miami Herald (3/4) No reference
            This marvelously intelligent romantic comedy will captivate even those who don't know or care muc...

By Stephen Whitty of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            There isn't an actress here who isn't perfect.

By Gene Seymour of Newsday (3/4) No reference
            Surely you must know you're still better off reading Austen on your own.

By Marc Mohan of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            This is comfort food, plain and simple, and achieves its modest goals in nearly effortless fashio...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (6/1) Not Reachable
            You don't have to have a library card to enjoy this story.

Movie Distributors
Sony Pictures Classics

Production Companies
John Calley Productions

Movie Studios
Sony Pictures Classics