Knight at the Movies Archives
Another "sisterhood" movie satisfies and surprisingly, so does a gay themed frat comedy
The chick flick has been on life support of late.  Evening, the only dramatic entry in the genre in the otherwise barren summer
months didn’t connect with audiences nor did
The Nanny Diaries, which appeared at the end of the season.  But The Jane Austen
Book Club might turn the tide for the troubled “woman’s picture.”  Like other movies in the genre, it too was based on a bestseller
but unlike some of its recent forebears it doesn’t rely on star power or a Gorgon-like main character (as in
Devil Wears Prada and
Nanny Diaries) to give it life.  Instead, it takes its template from that of the “sisterhood” picture – movies like Fried Green Tomatoes,
The Joy Luck Club, or Waiting to Exhale in which the ladies bond over a similar ethnic or cultural background.  Get out your hankies
girls, we finally have a winner.

The premise of the movie is that six friends, old and new, meet each month to talk about one of Jane Austen’s six novels.  Each
friend is assigned one of the Austen novels and gets the chance to lead the discussion.  The idea for the club is hatched by
Bernadette (Kathy Baker in a welcome return to a major screen role), a wise, aging hippie type who brings to mind the pot smoking
landlady Mrs. Madrigal of
Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City.”  Bernadette is between husbands and looking to connect on a
regular basis with her close friends.  These include Jocelyn (Maria Bello), a fiercely independent dog breeder, Sylvia (Amy
Bennerman) whose life is falling apart after her husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) has announced that he’s having an affair and wants
out of the marriage and Sylvia’s daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace) a lesbian who moves from girlfriend to girlfriend.  

On impulse Bernadette invites a stranger, Prudie (
Emily Blunt, the nasty assistant from Prada and the lesbian femme fatale from My
Summer of Love), an English high school teacher and Austen scholar, to join in.  All the ladies are surprised when Grigg (Hugh Dancy
who played the closeted Buddy in Evening) shows up at the first discussion after having received a backhanded invitation to join in
from Jocelyn.  The stage is now set for the characters and situations in the Austen novels to be reflected through a modern prism by
the ladies (and solo male) in the book club.

Naturally, romance in all its forms will ebb and flow between these folks as the months pass and the meetings continue.  With the
six Austen novels-six month framework in place screenwriter-director Robin Swicord gets the chance to do not one but a half dozen
warm and fuzzy montages of the characters engrossed in their books.  As the montages pile up so do the complications: Will Allegra
at last find a lady to love?  Will Sylvia and Daniel get back together?  Will Bernadette find another husband?  Will Prudie ever
reconnect with her jock, book hating husband or be free of her drunken mother (played with great relish by Lynn Redgrave in a great
cameo turn)?  Will Prudie have an affair with the high school hottie (essayed by
TransAmerica’s Kevin Zegers)?  And most important
to the other characters (and the audience), will Jocelyn ever stop blocking the advances of Grigg?

Not one of these questions has a surprising answer – a happy event for viewers wrapped tightly in the cocoon of this expertly made
sisterhood picture.  Austen’s novels have the same magical effect on the characters as the Italian countryside did on those in
Enchanted April which was so starry-eyed you could almost see the summer smile.  Romantic fool that I am I reveled in the chance
to indulge in another of these “Calgon, take me away…” movies but cynics and haters of dogs, sunset picnics or straight men in
touch with their feminine side would be wise to avoid
The Jane Austen Book Club.  This ain’t your cup of Twinings tea.

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Freshman Orientation, a frat comedy in which sex crazed Sam (Clay Adams – Jimmy Olsen from Superman Returns) pretends to
be gay to bed a comely blond gets off on the wrong foot but then, surprisingly, recovers.  Sam is a realist who doesn’t have much
going for him.  He’s of average looks, doesn’t have a great future ahead and knows that this is probably the only time in his life he’
ll be able to parlay his confidence into a variety of sexual trysts.  So, through a misunderstanding, he willingly plays gay.  First he
gets lessons in how to look and act the part from John Goodman (sweet, fun and knowing) the owner of the local gay bar.  “Let’s put
some sugar in those britches” Goodman tells him as the lessons commence.  Transformed (sorta) Sam quickly wins the heart of the
blond (who has her own agenda) though the bumpy road to lust will be paved with a lot of potholes.    

There are reminders of the heated up situations in the gay comedy
Eating Out but though Freshman Orientation has it beat in the
humor department it lacks its sexiness.  The former is thanks to
Freshman’s casting of some stellar comic support which aside from
Goodman includes out actor Heather Mattarazzo as a tough talkin’ Bronx babe, Rachel Dratch as a perennial student and drunk, and
puppy eyed Mike Erwin as Sam’s roommate.  
Surprisingly Satisfying:
The Jane Austen Book Club-Freshman Orientation
Expanded Edition of 9-19-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.