luni, 26 iunie 2017

The Jane Austen Book Club, written and directed by Robin Swicord, based on the book by Karen Joy Fowler

The Jane Austen Book Club, written and directed by Robin Swicord, based on the book by Karen Joy Fowler
8 out of 10

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:


This is a fine, rather sophisticated romantic comedy- drama.
It is not just about insight into the psychology of suffering women, but we also have analysis, various takes on…Jane Austen

We have a series of interesting characters, most of them women dealing with some sort of deception or failure in their lives.
Maria Bello has the role of Jocelyn, who is a dog breeder and I recognize the type for my wife is a borzoi owner that I try to convince to limit the number to the five we had.

Amy Brenneman is Sylvia, married to Daniel and Allegra’s mother.
One fine day, her husband comes home and says that he cannot lie any longer and he is moving in with another woman.

After many years of what was supposed to be a happy marriage, Sylvia is depressed and her friends try to change that.
Therefore Bernadette and Jocelyn come up with the idea of a book club to distract the abandoned woman.

Jocelyn meets with the younger Grigg, who is a fan of science fiction literature, but is willing to read Jane Austen.
So he becomes he only man in the club with six other women members.

They meet in each others’ homes and when Grigg’s turn is up, he offers a gothic, haunting show for the scared company…

-          What do you do for Halloween, if you did all this now?
-          Oh, Halloween is very different

Jocelyn tries to make the young man interested in Sylvia, or at the very least take her out for lunch and distract her.
Instead of experiencing PTSD- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- Sylvia has to try PTG- Post Traumatic Growth.

Alas, when it seems to work and Grigg and Sylvia talk and appear to have a great time, both Jocelyn and Daniel are not overjoyed.
As a matter of fact, we learn that Daniel had dated Jocelyn, gave her first puppy and then Jocelyn passed him on to Sylvia…

-          She traded your husband for a dog?

Well, more or less.
Allegra has her own misfortunes, but they involve a woman, not a man, for she is a lesbian and experiences a break up.

Emily Blunt- an actress that I like- is Prudie Drummond, yet another woman unsatisfied with her married life.
When her mother dies, at the funeral, her spouse is talking to a hot, sexy woman and Prudie is very upset.

In the following heated exchange, she accuses the man of wanting to hump that bitch there at the funeral…
He protests that he just talked to one of her friends…Friends? That woman only came because it was a funeral and she wanted to see me suffer and down, she has always hated me…

So Prudie is on the point of having an affair with one of her students, realizing very well it is inappropriate…

On the other hand, Madame Macron, even if she had been the mother of three and married, went on to marry the man who is now…the president of France and…more than twenty years her junior(?)
There are interesting quotes from Jane Austen- which has her Pride and Prejudice listed on the list of Best 100 Books Ever Written:


And various analysis, takes on characters from her books, a discussion on why the author did not marry and much more.

Very good film

Niciun comentariu:

Trimiteți un comentariu