Credits Director : Robin Swicord Starring : Emily Blunt, Maria Bello, Kathy Baker, Maggie Grace Our Score :

By Clint Morris

Jane Austen books are for girls, lets admit it, and I’m not even going to try and convince the guys reading that ''The Jane Austen Book Club'' is a film for them – it’s not. But if you fellas are dragged along to see ''Steel Magnolias''’ long-lost step-sister then I can assure you, you probably won’t feel the urge to crawl out beneath the seats once the theatre goes dark because it is, for the most part, quite a tolerable movie and you might just find yourself clandestinely enjoying it.

There are scary movies, there are sad movies, there are funny movies, there are suspenseful movies, there are kiddie movies, and then there’s ‘nice’ movies. This be one of those – it’s as friendly as the old lady that lives next door that gives you a wave if she spots you out the front gardening, and it’s as innocent as the two little girls you bought chocolates from when they knocked on your door last week. Robin Swicord’s film adaptation of the book of the same name (by Karen Joy Fowler) will cause about as much as harm to you as smoking a musk stick cigarette will.

In short, the film tells of six Californians – one, a young man – who start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen (Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion), only to find their relationships -- both old and new -- begin to resemble 21st century versions of her novel. There’s the newly-separated Sylvia (Amy Brenneman), whose husband (Jimmy Smits) has confessed to sleeping with a younger woman; the kindly senior of the group, Bernadette (Kathy Baker of “Picket Fences” fame) whose been married enough times to feel she can offer advice; the unhappily married Prudie (Emily Blunt) whose considering having an affair with an 18-year-old (Kevin Zegers) at the school she teaches; Sylvia’s teenage daughter and the token lesbian of the group Allegra (Maggie Grace) whose got some relationship problems of her own, and Jocelyn (Maria Bello) who manages to entice a young man (Hugh Dancy) into the book group if only to set her-up with Sylvia (he, of course, isn’t interested in Sylvia but Jocelyn). They’re quite an interesting bunch… and they all love Elizabeth and Darcy.

''The Jane Austen Book Club'' may be best suited to women – though I’m sure the guys won’t mind sparing a couple of hours with the lovely Maria Bello or Maggie Grace – but it definitely isn’t a ‘Jane Austen’ fans-only offering. It’s for anyone that enjoys a nice little movie, with good performances, and a reminder that life isn’t a Jane Austen novel.

Yes it’s tacky at times, and its quite cheesy (everyone’s lives seem so broken but are fixed rather easily), but this Book Club will give you and mum a chance to get out and spend some time together – and that’s what really matters, hey? (geez, spoken like a real chick).