The Jane Austen Book Club review
Apr. 5th, 2009 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI've just trawled through my entire LJ, searching the my review of the book, but I obviously read it either before I started the LJ or before I made the resolution to review every single book, rather than just selected ones.
Anyway, I remember vaguely enjoying the book - and I must have enjoyed it enough to put the film version on my DVD rental list.
It was yet another example of the kind of film I used to really enjoy, but now rarely watch and generally don't get engaged by - relationship movies.
The structure was quite interesting - the plot revolves around an eclectic group of people who meet once a month to discuss a different Austen novel, and it charts their various relationship along the way. I remember the individual stories of the people reflecting the appropriate novel each month much more in the book, but the film was quite well put together. it didn't move me in any way, though, and I have to admit that the only reason I kept watching till the end was because they cast Hugh Dancy as my favourite character.
Grigg, in the novel, is a very sweet, rather oblivious sci-fi geek, who gets drawn into the Austen book club after meeting one of its founder members at a hotel where they are attending very different conferences. I loved him in the book - and to have Hugh Dancy playing him in the film was just glorious. My favourite aspect of the film was Grigg trying to persuade Jocelyn to read some science-fiction, and her eventually discovering that she likes it, having harboured an unreasoning prejudice about it before.
So, as with Confessions of a Shopaholic, a mediocre film made eminently watchable by the presence of Mr Dancy (I wonder if the fact that his surname is only one letter away from Austen's most famous hero had anything to do with the casting!).
Anyway, I remember vaguely enjoying the book - and I must have enjoyed it enough to put the film version on my DVD rental list.
It was yet another example of the kind of film I used to really enjoy, but now rarely watch and generally don't get engaged by - relationship movies.
The structure was quite interesting - the plot revolves around an eclectic group of people who meet once a month to discuss a different Austen novel, and it charts their various relationship along the way. I remember the individual stories of the people reflecting the appropriate novel each month much more in the book, but the film was quite well put together. it didn't move me in any way, though, and I have to admit that the only reason I kept watching till the end was because they cast Hugh Dancy as my favourite character.
Grigg, in the novel, is a very sweet, rather oblivious sci-fi geek, who gets drawn into the Austen book club after meeting one of its founder members at a hotel where they are attending very different conferences. I loved him in the book - and to have Hugh Dancy playing him in the film was just glorious. My favourite aspect of the film was Grigg trying to persuade Jocelyn to read some science-fiction, and her eventually discovering that she likes it, having harboured an unreasoning prejudice about it before.
So, as with Confessions of a Shopaholic, a mediocre film made eminently watchable by the presence of Mr Dancy (I wonder if the fact that his surname is only one letter away from Austen's most famous hero had anything to do with the casting!).
