The Jane Austen Book Club

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A group of women meets monthly to discuss Jane Austen books and compare the works to their own lives. The lone male of the group is Grigg (Hugh Dancy), an eager-to-please chap with his eye on Jocelyn (Maria Bello), who keeps trying to pawn him off on her recently separated sister Sylvia (Amy Brenneman).

Big question: Can this chick flick, based on Karen Joy Fowler's novel, appeal to those who both agree and disagree with the line, "A little Jane Austen is better than none at all"?

Catch it: Yeah, the usual clichés abound, with women making flan to cheer themselves up, Prudie's (Emily Blunt) beer-drinking, sports-watching husband seen as the enemy and tough-to-stomach lines like, "Our world is an English village." But "Book Club" has done its homework on the nature of tricky relationships--whether love is just warming up or cooling off--and has more real-seeming people and sensible decisions than most pieces of wish-fulfillment nonsense.

Skip it: If, like Sylvia, you also worry that as you age, your "body will become a museum" and you don't want a reminder. Hey, even dusty museums are sometimes worth exploring!

Bottom line: Much of "The Jane Austen Book Club" drove me crazy, yet somehow I kinda liked it. Responsibility for that lies almost entirely with Blunt, who embodies all of Prudie's annoyance, frustration and sporadic glimmers of possibility with only a smirk and a roll of the eyes.

Bonus: Don't worry if you think you're unqualified for your job. French teacher Prudie hasn't even been to France!

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