Sometimes Chick-Lite Is Just Right!

I was channel surfing the other night and came across the end of a movie on the Starz channel that I had watched on DVD a few months ago - The Jane Austen Book Club. I truly enjoyed watching it at the time and viewing the end of it again really got me thinking about what I like and want in a movie and how sometimes it's great to go outside the box. I'm one of those people who would probably be considered somewhat of a movie snob. I want great acting, engrossing storylines (often with multiple storyarcs intersecting), if it's a drama, an ending that hits you right smack in the gut, and if it's a comedy, completely original, quirky, subtle, off-the-wall humor that you have to use your brain to get. Neat, tidy ending for the sake of making you happy don't do it for me. And most of all, NO CHICK FLICKS! I'm not into the poor damsel in distress, man comes to the rescue, they fall in love and all is right with the world plot in any form. But every once in a while a movie comes along that appears to the naked eye that it may be for the female gender only with mostly lighter fare, but has a little more lurking under the surface. For me, The Jane Austen Book Club fit this bill.

It is the story of 5 women at very different points in their lives who decide to start a book club where they only read all of the works of the great Jane Austen. Of course, each woman in her own way resembles a great Austen literary character. They add a lone male member to the club for one reason, but he has his own agenda. The great thing is, even if you haven't read Austen, or only some of her books, the discussions they have give you the jest of each plot and you can make the character connections and start rooting for the outcomes based on the plotlines of the books. This movie is at times hilarious, sad, touching, and just like all of Austen's books, all about the complexities of love and the human condition. By the end, all I could do was wonder what happened to all of my Jane Austen books from my high school years and wish I still had them to read again. Mmmmm, maybe I should just sign off now and surf on over to Amazon and put some books in my shopping cart! - SJP