The Jane Austen Book Club

This one is cute enough to get by. A cast of decent actresses, including Maria Bello, Kathy Baker, Emily Blunt and Amy Brenneman star as a group of women who form a book club concentrating on the books of Jane Austen. To describe it would make it sound like a bunch of cliché crap, and in some ways it is. It’s all in the performances, which are very good. Even Maggie Grace, who is usually lacking in chops, does a nice job as one of the club members. Jimmy Smits gives a great performance as a man going through a midlife crisis, and Kevin Zegers is funny as the lone male member of the club. I was shocked to find a movie about a bunch of women sitting around in Starbucks reading Jane Austen novels interesting and entertaining, but that’s what this movie is.