Yes! And a Jane Austen book club at that! A failed movie in its overall execution, yes, but bravo, bravo I say for making the attempt, the glorious attempt to buck the tide; the tide of car chases, gun shots, torture, terrorism, “drop it or she gets it,” green screen computer generated special effects cliched character posturing, etcetera, etcetera, etctera…my good reader.
When it was over my wife said to me, “Well, I sort of got caught up in it, but what really happened? I mean, speculating on the motives of fictional characters??”
That alone I take as a thumbs up, because the screenwriter can do something other than – tires squeal, or hero sneaks around corner holding gun. This movie is an unofficial companion piece to “Becoming Jane,” the biographical period piece of the author herself. Here, the attempt is made to parallel the lives of Austen’s characters with a group of modern day Californians.
Again, how bold to attempt to portray two such disparate groups as essentially, and inherently possessed of and pursuing, respectively, the same qualities and dreams.
I’m reminded of another little known piece; Danny Devito teaching Army recruits Shakespeare. For anyone with even a year of community college, think of the possibilities; women do a Jack London book group, men in prison have a weekly discussion on Dostoevsky. My point is character in both fiction and real life is richer than any plot because without character plot cannot exist. And while plot can be made quite interesting, without adequate character you have “the Da Vinci Code,” and nothing more.
I’m writing this to celebrate this film as a mainstream effort at character study, a blow against the prevailing wind, both in arts and life, of the plot-driven life culture. What happens? Is too often the question in film and life- who wins, who loses, what mystery is solved, and other such formulaic questions, when the real interest is: who do we get to know who helps us get to know ourselves better?
