This was my number 3 pick for my Everything Austen Challenge that I'm doing. I've already seen the movie, but I really enjoy re-watching it.
The idea behind this movie (it's based on a book of the same name) is that 5 women want to start an "All Jane Austen, all the time" book club to help them deal with the various problems they're all going through. Sylvia is a middle-aged librarian and mother whose husband leaves her for another woman. Jocelyn is Sylvia's best friend and an unmarried dog breeder, whose favorite dog just passed away. Bernadette appears to be almost 60, is friends with Sylvia and Jocelyn, has been married 6 times, and enjoys yoga and knitting. She meets Prudie at a Jane Austen film fest - Prudie is a French teacher who is married to a man who would "cancel our trip to Paris for a basketball game". Allegra is Sylvia's 20-something year old daughter - adventurous, sweet, and fearless. And Grigg is a young man that Jocelyn meets and invites to the book club - supposedly for a male perspective, but really as eye candy to distract Sylvia.
And from there they spend 6 months reading the 6 Jane Austen novels. Of course, the movie is filled with parallels between the books and their own lives. But it's a movie truly about some remarkable and intelligent women and about life.
I thoroughly enjoy this movie. I think that it just makes me yearn to be like these women - dealing with life, but always sitting down and having the time to read and enjoy Jane Austen. It makes me feel relaxed and indulgent. I have to say however, that the end, the epilogue for lack of a better word, is my least favorite part of the movie. I won't say exactly why, just that I feel that it makes some of the women look weak and as though they simply settled in matters that were important to them.
Over all, I recommend this movie. It desperately makes me want to reach for a blanket and an Austen novel. What could be better?
4 out of 5 stars