The chick flick has been on life support of late but The Jane Austen Book Club might turn the tide for the troubled 'women's picture.' Like other movies in the genre, it too was based on a best seller but, unlike some of its recent forebears, it doesn't rely on star power or a Gorgon-like main character ( as in The Devil Wears Prada and The 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.
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Photo: JANE AUSTEN...Amy Brenneman and Jimmy Smits
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The premise of the movie is that six friends meet each month to talk about one of Jane Austen's six novels. Each 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 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 Brenneman ) , 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 back-handed invitation 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 and the questions. How will all these love-starved folks resolve their problems?
Not one of the 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, straight men in touch with their feminine side or sunset picnics would be wise to avoid The Jane Austen Book Club. This ain't your cup of Twinings tea.
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 has average looks, doesn't have a great future ahead and knows that this is probably the only time in 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 situations in the gay comedy Eating Out; however, although Freshman Orientation has it beat in the humor department, it lacks its sexiness. The burst of humor is because of some stellar comic support, which includes Goodman, 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. Plays exclusively at Landmark Century Centre Cinema. www.landmarktheatres.com
Cruising, director William Friedkin's controversial 1980 story of a serial killer stalking gay men immersed in New York City's S&M culture, is out on DVD ( courtesy of Warner Home Video ) . Al Pacino stars in the lurid thriller as a straight cop who really goes undercover to find the brutal murderer. At the film's conclusion, as his girlfriend, Karen Allen, tries on his leather jacket, he has become so immersed in the culture it is strongly suggested that his sexual proclivities have expanded to include homosexuality. Protests of the movie occurred even as it was being filmed; activists were concerned that the filmmakers were attempting to link gay sex and violence and feared that the movie would be responsible for an increase in homophobia and hate crimes ( a term that didn't exist at the time ) .
When Cruising opened in February 1980, it was greeted in major cities ( including Chicago ) with more protests from gay activists, which hurt the movie at the box office to some extent. However, when seen today it's more of a curio than anything else—a Hollywood-style glimpse into the sexual excesses of pre-AIDS Manhattan. Its interpretation and attitudes about gay life are as out of date as those in The Boys in the Band—ironically, another gay-themed movie directed by Friedkin 10 years before Cruising. The DVD includes a commentary track and two featurettes detailing the movie's troubled history.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter web site, where there is also ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
