It is a long weekend and I had not planned it well. I just did what I found myself doing -- if that make any sense. And I caught this movie, The Jane Austen Book Club, on TV. I have seen the book in the store several times but did not get it.
The book club was started by Bernadette, who was fiftysomething and a six-time divorcée. It happened when she mets Prudie, a prim, married high school French teacher in her mid-20s, at a Jane Austen film festival. Her concept is to have six members discuss all of Austen's six novels, with each member hosting the group once a month. The group consisted of 5 women and a guy: Bernadette, Prudie, Sylvia, a fortysomething housewife who recently has separated from her philandering lawyer husband Daniel after more than two decades of marriage; Allegra, Sylvia's 20-year-old lesbian daughter, Jocelyn, a happily unmarried control freak and breeder of Rhodesian Ridgebacks who has been Sylvia's friend since childhood, and Grigg, the only guy, a science fiction fan who's roped into the group by Jocelyn with the hope he and Sylvia will prove to be a compatible match.
It was interesting to watch them live their lives and how similar they were to Austen's characters in their reaction to their life events.
However, I read somewhere that "the screenplay is for the most part a dramatic departure from the novel". So, it looks like I have to go get the book after all. Or worse still, I'd need to first read all six of Austen's book -- I have them somewhere in the house ...
pearlie
:P AH ... I read Austen's works. Spunky femme fatale, all her heroines are. Have you seen the movie Becoming Jane? Starring Kiera Knightley and a bio-pic of Jane Austen (or as how the writer interprets it). And while we're at it, consider watching Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger. Man I love this. She acted as Beatrix Potter, the author or The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Or maybe it's just me or a phase, but funny ... why do I get to watch dramas/movies and/or read books about old maids. :P
ReplyDeleteI have not watched Becoming Jane - will look out for it. I managed to catch Miss Potter on TV but only about the last third of it -- I did enjoy it.
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