• Title: Austenland
• IMDb: link

Based on the novel of the same name by Shannon Hale, writer and first-time director Jerusha Hess (co-writer of both Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre) delivers a quirky, over-the-top, odd film that is more charming than it has any right to be. Showcasing how one may take fandom too far, Keri Russell stars as Jane Hayes, a middle-aged single woman with a lifelong obsession for the works of Jane Austen and a romantic life that has never lived up to her fantasies. Spending her entire savings, Jane books a vacation at an Austen-themed destination getaway where she might finally live out those fantasies as a woman from Austen’s era.

In the spirit of a Christopher Guest film that simultaneously celebrates and pokes fun at a particular niche, Austenland‘s premise could turned around any number of overzealous fans and the properties they embrace so religiously. However, anyone who has ever known a woman obsessed with Austen’s books may take a somewhat perverse glee in Jane’s realization that her time-period-appropriate assigned role isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

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Austenland may be a fun place to visit, but…Read More »