The Jane Austen Book Club 2007

The Jane Austen Book Club

Well my recent posts on Hugh Dancy and Emily Blunt gave me a hankering for The Jane Austen Book Club. I know it is not high art. It obviously did not win any Oscars. And yet, what a great film to spend an evening with! So that is what I did this past weekend. I always feel that if my husband and my teenaged son sit down and watch a film with me, it can't be all that bad!

The film mingles tidbits of all six novels with six different main characters who read all of Jane Austen's novels again together (or for the first time in the case of the adorable Grigg) and meet once a month to discuss. The two Brits in the cast play Americans with wonderful accents. Intertwining bits of Austen's novels into the modern character's lives and personalities really works for me. And the fact that 5 women can take for granted that they have all read Jane Austen's books is awesome for a geek like me!!!

"Our world is an English village." 

Prudie

Prudie Drummond: He looks at me like he's the spoon, and I'm the dish of ice cream.

Jocelyn

Grigg Harris: Women never go for the nice guys.
Jocelyn: Please, men say that, but when you get to know some of these men who complain the most, you find out they're not as nice as they think they are.

Bernadette

Bernadette: All Jane Austen, all the time. It's the perfect antidote.
Prudie Drummond: To what?
Bernadette: To life.

Sylvia and Daniel

Jocelyn: Do you think he has a brain tumor?
Sylvia Avila: I think he fell in love.
Jocelyn: Well, I'm rooting for the brain tumor.

Allegra

Daniel Avila: Can we at least agree that human beings need human connection. You know... companionship, conversation, sex.
Allegra: You get those things from mom, Jocelyn gets those things from her dogs.

Grigg!!!!

Jocelyn: You know what I'm wondering before I go? How do you feel about older women?
Grigg Harris: Ah, great. I have three older sisters, so I like all women. 

***********************************************************************************

I still say Grigg is my fave part of this film, and apparently I have mellowed to the film over the last few years. I think I could easily watch it once a year, ad infinitum.

By the way, I still haven't read The Mysteries of Udolpho. And I actually screamed out loud when Grigg's phone rang with an R2D2 ringtone. Squee!!!!

And I am totally going to check out Ursula le Guin!

"Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter."

Hugh Dancy- Actor of the Week

Hugh Dancy

Hugh Dancy is a talented young actor who has been in quite a few wonderful films, usually playing the romantic lead. Oxford educated (English Literature of course), fluent in French, a model for Burberry...holy crap is Claire Danes ever a lucky lady!

Hugh Dancy as Daniel Deronda with Romola Garai and Hugh Bonneville

As the title character in Daniel Deronda, Hugh Dancy shone as the magnificently moral and upstanding young hero.

Sir Hugo Mallinger: So you don't want to be an English gentleman to the backbone after all.
Daniel Deronda: Yes, of course I want to be an English gentleman sir, but I want to understand other points of view.

**********************************************************************************

Gwendolen Harleth: He seems not like young men in general.

Hugh Dancy as Grigg in The Jane Austen Book Club

Grigg from The Jane Austen Book Club is so much one of my favourite film characters that I dedicated a blog entry to him a while back. Adorable so often comes to mind when describing Hugh Dancy but never more appropriately than when he is Grigg. Grigg is so perfect that even Jane Austen couldn't conceive of such a man. But we can dream, can't we? I must dig out my DVD of The Jane Austen Book Club for a Grigg fix!!

Grigg Harris: What about me? Am I your friend? Or am I just some widget to help you make Sylvia feel better about herself? Why did you invite me to be part of your book club? What went through your mind the first time you saw me? "There's a man who is dying to read every book Jane Austen ever wrote." Is that what you thought?
Jocelyn: No.
Grigg Harris: But I thought, "What a beautiful woman. I hope she looks over at me." I thought if I read your favorite books that you would read mine. But, no, no, no, no... You just want to be obeyed. That's why you have dogs. 

Hugh Dancy with Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons in Elizabeth I

And who could blame Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I for being a bit of a cougar when going after Hugh Dancy as the Earl of Essex. Yum yum! This is another DVD I have to dig out of my collection.

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex: How can I read when you look at me like that?
Queen Elizabeth I: How do I look at you?
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex: As if you are deciding whether to eat me.

Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy in Ella Enchanted

In Ella Enchanted, Hugh plays Prince Charmant naturally! How many girls have now grown up with Hugh Dancy in their head as the perfect Prince Charming?  Personally, I can't think of a better ideal man.



Char: You're the first maiden who hasn't swooned at the sight of me.
Ella: Then maybe I've done you some good. 

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy in Hysteria

OK, you might be aware that Hugh has been on my mind because I watched Hysteria this past weekend, or as I affectionately call it "The Vibrator Movie".  Loved it!!!

Charlotte Dalrymple: It must be difficult pleasuring half the women in the city.
Mortimer Granville: Pleasure has nothing to do with it, I can assure you.
Charlotte Dalrymple: I suppose that depends on whether you are over the table or on it!

**********************************************************************************

I have a feeling that a few of my readers are Hugh Dancy fanciers, am I right? I look forward to hearing what your fave Hugh Dancy films are!

Hysteria is Hysterical!

Yes, Hysteria really is about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England. And in my opinion it is adorable. Not everyone's cup of tea I realize. If the subject matter makes you a little uncomfortable, then give this one a pass. I can certainly see that certain conservatives would not be amused by this premise.

If however you do find it amusing that someone made a romantic comedy about...well...you know what... then you will have a lovely light evening and leave the theatre laughing heartily.

A very proper dinner scene in Hysteria

The cast is wonderful. Hugh Dancy (Daniel Deronda, Grigg from The Jane Austen Book Club) plays the adorably earnest but slightly clueless Dr. Mortimer Granville, the doctor credited with the first patented electric vibrator. Jonathan Pryce (Mr. Buxton in Cranford) portrays Mortimer's employer Dr. Dalrymple, overworked from "treating" hysterical upper class English ladies. The Dalrymple daughters are Maggie Gyllenhall (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) and Felicity Jones (Northanger Abbey), both brilliant in their depiction of two totally different types of Victorian ladies. Also outstanding are Rupert Everett, Gemma Jones, Anna Chancellor, and quite a few other actors whom I have seen in other films but who are lesser known.

The director and the writers were American (hard to believe, I know!) but the cast is almost entirely British. Maggie Gyllenhaal's accent is awesome and sounds suspiciously like her friend Emma Thompson's accent!

Ready, set...

Molly: What do you call that little thing?
Mortimer Granville: I was calling it the feather duster.
Molly: Well I'd think of something quick, so that a girl knows what to ask for.


So I leave it up to you about whether you will enjoy this film. I loved it as did my husband. OK, he wasn't happy about me leaving him in line for the film to go to the washroom. Poor guy, all alone...in line for the vibrator movie. :)

But he said he liked it more than he liked The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And he liked that one a lot!

Cheers!!

David Cassidy to Richard Armitage, My ever changing taste in men!

A Tiger Beat from 1972 which is probably where I got my poster of David Cassidy

After seeing way too much of Justin Beiber lately, I got thinking about my first love, David Cassidy.  I had a poster of him on my bedroom wall in about 1972 which I had to take down because I was too shy to undress in front of it. True story. I used to hide behind my bed and wiggle out of my clothes, convinced that his eyes were following me. I still watched a lot of The Partridge Family after this but that was the end of my David Cassidy phase, the only remnant of which is my old Partridge Family Album (LP of course).

Pa Ingalls (Michael Landon) was another early crush

Michael Landon was probably my next minor crush, as I watched Little House on the Prairie every week. I loved the books and I adored the television show. I still have my "autographed" photo of the Little House cast as I sent a fan letter to California in the 1970s and they sent me the photo in return. I think I liked Pa Ingalls more as a father figure, but he was rather cute. I wished I was Half-Pint for a good chunk of the 1970s.

As you wish, Westley (Cary Elwes)

The 1980s were a rather quiet time for my crushes as I was in University for most of the decade and too busy for such nonsense. (OK, not true, but not much money for movies, no cable, and VCRs were something you rented from the video store in a big silver case).
However, 1987 brought me not only my future husband, but also Westley (aka Cary Elwes) who are forever united in my mind as The Princess Bride was our first date movie. Ah, Westley. Sigh! As you wish...

Oh, Mr. Darcy! Colin Firth was my 1990s crush

1995 brought me my Mr. Darcy.  Pride and Prejudice came onto Canadian television the winter I was at home on maternity leave with my second son. I was smart enough to tape the entire five episodes on my VCR as I had seen a photo of Colin Firth in a cravat and Jennifer Ehle in a bonnet on the cover of our TV Times that first week and I was hooked. I knew nothing of the actors and I knew nothing of Jane Austen. I know! Gasp in horror if you will, but I had studied science for six years of University with not one literature course on my transcript. I had just started reading the Bronte sisters' works and gleefully started reading all six Austen novels that year. Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility came out later that year as did the film adaptation of Persuasion. Then in 1996, Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma hit the theatres. Wow, the 1990s were really good to me. Lots of lovely leading men in these films too. Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Ciaran Hinds and Jeremy Northam.

Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars

Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon

Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth

Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley

Yes, the 90s were a very good decade. But this new millennium has brought lots of cuties as well. I have to say the big one for me has been Mr. Thornton, otherwise known as Richard Armitage in the 2004 adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South. For any of you not lucky enough to have seen this one, I am not talking about the 80s Civil War miniseries, I am talking about the BBC miniseries about a man from the industrial North of England and a woman from the bucolic South of England and their story. You know how it goes. Boy sees girl. Boy likes girl. Girl dislikes boy. Boy pursues her anyway and is rebuffed. Girl realizes she is a fool and that she has greatly misjudged this sexy guy. There is a misunderstanding. They are separated. They are reunited. They kiss at a train station. Sigh!

 

Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton.

Even my husband aka The Squire, admits that Richard Armitage is a handsome man. He never understood what I saw in Colin Firth however. I can't explain it to him. He has Michelle Pfeiffer, so it's all good!

Of course, I am rather fickle with my "crushes". I have had a few sighs over Jonny Lee Miller as Mr. Knightley in the new 2009 version of Emma.

Jonny Lee Miller. Angelina Jolie has good taste in men (except for Billy Bob!)

And I have a few blogging buddies who rather fancy Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey. I can see his appeal although my sister disagrees as she can only picture him as the doltish Mr. Rushworth in Mansfield Park 1999. Personally, I began to find him attractive in Daniel Deronda, even though he played a baddie, he was a sexy baddie. Actually, that film also has the lovely Hugh Dancy in the titular role. And it has Romola Garai wearing some of the most gorgeous Victorian dresses I've ever seen.

Daniel Deronda- two Hughs and some fabulous dresses

Sorry Richard, it looks like I may have to watch either Daniel Deronda this week, or finish watching my DVD of Downton Abbey for the second time. So many leading men, so little time.

Hugh Dancy as Grigg from The Jane Austen Book Club

I have to say that although I thought The Jane Austen Book Club was a cute diversion of a film, worth an occasional viewing but not a real favorite, the best thing about it was Hugh Dancy and his character Grigg Harris.
Grigg is the man whom all women readers of Jane Austen would love to have at their book club.  Gorgeous, slightly geeky in a sweet way, uber intelligent in an attractive way, a man who loves and understands women (having grown up with sisters), and who is romantic and charming.  And a man who will actually pick up a Jane Austen book without a look of terror in his eyes.
OK, the fact that this man does not actually exist in the real world is beside the point.  That is what makes him so fascinating to watch in this unabashed chick flick.  He is mesmerizing because we have never seen his like before.  Not only does he throw himself into the world of Austen with an open mind and no fear, he outdoes the Austen lovers in enthusiasm when he not only reads Northanger Abbey, but he reads The Mysteries of Udolpho referenced therein.  I mean only the absolute hard core Janite or lover of all things gothic has done this.  And not only that, but when he hosts the book club meeting about Northanger Abbey, he decorates his house in true Hallowe'en haunted house style to add to the atmosphere.  How do you find a guy with that kind of child-like enthusiasm for life?  The only man I have ever seen who even approaches him was my hunky, fabulous Grade 5 teacher Mr. Shea who helped us turn our classroom into a haunted house and was an amazing teacher to boot.  But I digress...

In my adult life, cynical as I now am, I don't believe this character of Grigg exists and if he did he would either be very taken or very very gay.  The chance of having a Grigg walk into your life or join your book club is about the same as bumping into Colin Firth at your local Starbucks and then not going all Bridget Jones over him!
In any case, this is my little tribute to the talented Hugh Dancy and a bit of happy anticipation for the JASNA AGM in Portland later this month which I will be attending with my sister and which has a gothic, Northanger Abbey theme this year.
So Happy Hallowe'en in advance and I think I have to go out now and try to buy a copy of The Mysteries of Udolpho.  Mrs. Radcliffe here I come.