Just yesterday we mentioned how Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr Darcy in the BBC version of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has inspired many a lady-boner, and now today we get a trailer for a movie just about that topic (the love of Mr Darcy I mean, not lady-boners), as Keri Russell gets her Jane Austen fangirl on in Austenland.
It’s a romantic comedy about the impossible standards set by romantic comedies. Oh, how meta!
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice,” is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen—or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It’s all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
Let’s not beat around the bush here: Your girlfriend/wife/significant other is going to drag you to see this. And you have my sympathies. Despite the fact that it has a great cast (including the reliably awesome Brett McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords), and is the directorial debut of Napoleon Dynamite writer Jershua Hess, this seems very clumsy, predictable and overly sappy. My wife will love it.
You will be checking in to Austenland (possibly against your will) on August 16, 2013.
Last Updated: July 10, 2013
