The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

When a single guy and five women of very different ages and stages form a book club to discuss Jane Austen's six novels, their messy lives begin to imitate the art they're reading. The movie has six segments, each one named after one of the novels. With each turn of the kaleidoscope this film takes on the character of a soap opera—everyone has problems with love and marriage, too many sagas are treated too superficially, and little more than snappy verbal jousting moves the picture forward. And like a soap opera, neither real life nor Austen's novels enjoy the syrupy resolution of this film. My hunch is that a woman who has married six times is not a candidate for bliss on the seventh try, that a young teacher who hits on her high school student will not rebound so quickly, or that a twenty year marriage that ends in acrimony will probably not u-turn into one of affection after the husband (!) reads an Austen novel. If that's too critical, then enjoy this fluffy film as a fun romantic comedy that includes a reminder about the real problems that we all have with the game of love.