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. 

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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.

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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!

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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!

Emily Blunt- Actor of the Week

Emily Blunt's career has been taking off in the last few years. First known to most of us as the scene stealing receptionist from The Devil Wears Prada, Emily has done many recent films, both period and modern.

Emily Blunt as Emily in The Devil Wears Prada

Emily: Andrea, my God! You look so chic.
Andy Sachs: Oh, thanks. You look so thin.
Emily: Really? It's for Paris, I'm on this new diet. Well, I don't eat anything and when I feel like I'm about to faint I eat a cube of cheese. I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.

Emily Blunt as Prudie in The Jane Austen Book Club

As Prudie, the uptight French teacher who has never been to France, Emily gave emotional depth to the role of an unsatisfied married woman toying with having an affair with a student in The Jane Austen Book Club.

Prudie: Being the only child of a woman who gave birth in a commune after changing her name to Skygirl, I've come to loath hippie-handie crafts.

Emily Blunt as The Young Victoria

In The Young Victoria,  Emily Blunt is luminous as Queen Victoria at the beginning of her reign. As the young and headstrong monarch, we can forgive Emily for being so much taller and good looking than the real Queen Vicky. This is an incredibly well done film and the costumes and locations are to die for.

Queen Victoria: I am young, but I am willing to learn, and I mean to devote my life to the service of my country and my people. I look for your help in this. I know I shall not be disappointed. Thank you.

Jason Segal and Emily Blunt in Gulliver's Travels

I didn't see Gulliver's Travels which was released in 2010. A modern take on the classic tale, it stars Jack Black as Gulliver and Emily plays Princess Mary. It didn't get very good reviews which is too bad as with a cast like that it could have been really wonderful. Anybody else see this one? Is it a good one to see with the kids?

Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau

I found The Adjustment Bureau pretty edge-of-the-seat exciting. Emily Blunt plays Elise, a ballet dancer who is not supposed to meet or fall in love with Matt Damon's character David Norris, a politician. Of course, this is exactly what she does. And "The Adjustment Bureau" wants to fix that. Uh-oh!

Elise Sellas: Were you just looking at my legs while I slept?
David Norris: I was helpless against the dress.
Elise Sellas: It's a skirt.
David Norris: It's a belt! 

Emily Blunt with Ewan McGregor in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is one of my favourite flicks this year so far. I may have to purchase this one as I look forward to seeing it again with some DVD extras. Great chemistry between Emily and Ewan!

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We will see even more of Emily in the next little while. She has a film with Colin Firth coming out next year called Arthur Newman, Golf Pro. I wonder whether they will be donning American accents for that one! Any other films you have enjoyed Emily Blunt in? I loved her cameo in The Muppets as Miss Piggy's receptionist. Adorable! Here's to more films from the girl with the "sly eyes". Perhaps with her new hubby John Krasinski from The Office ???