2.5 stars (out of 4)

Released 2007

The concept of this film is that a group of women, plus one lone guy, form a book club dedicated to reading Austen’s novels, and the conceit is that each member’s life mirrors one of the characters in her books.  It’s a cute idea, but because there are so many separate stories to tell, there’s not enough time to properly develop most of them.

Frankly, it’s been a while since I’ve read most of Austen’s novels and I couldn’t remember some of the plotlines well enough to see the parallels with the present-day characters (not that familiarity with the books is needed to follow the movie).  Of the three novels I know well, the parallels were superficial enough that I did not feel that they added any depth to our understanding of the movie characters.

I would have rated this film 2 stars, were it not for Emily Blunt’s performance.  Her character starts out annoying, in a cartoonish sense almost out of sync with the rest of the film, but gradually becomes more and more relatable and sympathetic.