"The Jane Austen Book Club" on BLU RAY - A Review Of The 2007 Film Reissued And Remastered Onto A 'European' BLU RAY...

                                                  

                                                     The Jane Austen Book Club on BLU RAY

It was November 2007 in London and I'd just come back from an early evening showing of JACB in our nearby multiplex on a wet and windy Saturday night. My mate Franklin and I were looking for something uplifting and light and decided on this. No one else did. We were the lone two in the cinema - literally.

The Jane Austen Book Club had received 3-star reviews almost everywhere in the Austen-is-ours UK and condescendingly labelled a mere chick-flick because of the mostly female cast and JA themes - the most famous and adored female writer in history (it was released on DVD 17 March 2008 and on BLU RAY, 5 February 2008). Which is a damn shame because The Jane Austen Book Club was/is much better than that and we both thought so too. And in the two decades that have passed since its release, this film has gained a cult audience worldwide. Rewatching it in September 2026 on this gorgeous All Regions Denmark BLU RAY I bought years ago to own a copy – it still holds up, looks fabulous and is frankly a little bit of an uplifting nugget…

Based on the book by Karen Joy Fowler and adapted by first-time Director Robin Swicord with amazing skill - here's the basic story: Six women of different ages and sexual persuasions form a book club to discuss something that unites and excites them all - Jane Austen's six period-piece novels. One will be tackled and talked about every month in a different location whilst life and love and fucked up city madness intermingle. There's "Pride & Prejudice", "Sense & Sensibility", "Emma", "Northanger Abbey", " Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion". The original book author planned each to be loosely based on Austen heroes – so you get Kathy Baker's Bernadette representing Mrs. Gardiner in Pride And Prejudice, Amy Brennaman's mother-hen in the kitchen character based on Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, pooch-worshipping Jocelyn (Maria Bello) reflecting the title character in the least-liked Austen novel, Emma, and so on.

The actresses/actors are Amy Brennaman playing the adoring and faithful Jocelyn who is married to and having trouble with her mid-life crisis husband Daniel played by Jimmy Smits (sweet turns from both). In an early breakout role, Emily Blunt is the wound-tighter-than-a-drum Prudie, a school teacher lusting after an 18-year hunky student played by the handsome Kevin Zegers. Prudie is getting nothing mentally or physically from her basic guy of a husband Dean (a superbly assured part for Marc Blucas that grows as the movie progresses). Running in an out of her chaos and French-spoken tears is Prudie's mad hippy mum played with gusto by a make-up be-damned Lynn Redgrave. Prudie doesn't know who her Dad is – her Mum can't be trusted even in older age (oven fires, joints in cars) while everything Prudie wears and does reflects a damaged woman screaming for order and constancy – a French teacher who feels she's a fraud because she's never been to France. 

Next up is the free spirit of the bunch - Kathy Baker playing Bernadette, the oldest, who has been married six times and is happily looking for husband number seven. The gorgeous and vivacious sky-diving love-missile fireball Maggie Grace plays Amy Brennaman and Jimmy Smits' daughter Allegra who is a hot young lesbian in love with a manipulative writer she meets in hospital having tumbled off a rock-climbing face (the beautiful Parisa Fitz-Henry plays Corrine). And finally, Maria Bello is Jocelyn who loves dogs more than almost anything - including men. Throw in a male love interest for Maria Bello's character in the shape of a charming and funny Hugh Dancy playing bicycling Star Wars nerd boy Grigg and the stage is set for each book to be devoured and discussed. Much like their gadget strewn Californian lives. 

 

The Writer/Director Robin Swicord has sculpted their lives to mirror Austen's plots and as some reviewers have pointed out, these bits are a little too pat for comfort. But that doesn't stop the dialogue from being repeatedly touching and amazingly on the pulse on how love is in the complicated and confusing 2000s. There are rare insights here and beautifully observed snippets of life too (taking a tip from a device Austen uses in her books - dialogue by Kathy Baker's character titles this review).

The actresses as you can imagine (given great material) are uniformly superb, especially Emily Blunt who looks ravishing every time the camera is pointed at her - and I commented back in 2008 that she was a huge star in the making if ever there was one. Maria Bello is her usual classy self, bringing real gravitas and warmth to her character, who must do the most 'growing' and Amy Brennaman adds a real earthiness to what would have been a little too frothy a crew. Maggie Grace is both lovely and sexy as the passionate and headstrong daughter. The warmth and sheer class of Kathy Baker combined with a brilliantly nutty fruitcake turn by Lynn Redgrave only add icing to an already fantastic ensemble cake. As Jimmy Smits says in a Making Of interview, the cast liked each other and the material, and the 30-day Indie-type gotta-get-it-done shoot permeated into the performances – he says you'll see it on screen and he's right – there's fun and warmth here and I think that positivity has been picked up by audiences ever since its modest earnings in 2007 and 2008.

Then come the men who are excellent choices both as actors and eye-candy. The hugely likeable Hugh Dancy plays the hapless Grigg who fancies Maria Bello's character Jocelyn - but she only wants to pair him off with Amy Brennaman's character Sylvia. Sylvia is too much in love with/and hurt by her now parted/cheating husband Jimmy Smits to notice anyone. Jimmy Smits is excellent and so likeable - it's easy to see why Robin Swicord wanted to work with him. Emily Blunt's prim and proper Prudie is driven by her need to be neat, ordered and have everything just so, but she is wild inside for forbidden fruit - licking her rather delicious lips at the heartthrob that is Trey played by Kevin Zegers ("...he looks at me like he's the spoon...and I'm a dish of ice cream..."). But the unfolding surprise is Marc Blucas as Blunt's husband Dean - his performance is clever - he seems like a sap at first trapped in a marriage he no longer understands, but his growth back to his wife is beautifully handled and convincing. And then of course there's that writer - the gorgeous Jane Austen - who generation-after-generation takes every heart by storm. Hearing each of Austen's novels discussed and critiqued and then hearing extracts from some of them only makes you want to run out and instantly buy all six - then go on a Jane-bender yourself.

I played the British DVD before the Euro BLU RAY on my 4K BLU RAY player with an 8K interconnect and the picture clarity was startling. The DVD is lovely but the Remastered Hi-Def Danish BLU RAY improves things considerably – clarity is everywhere. Close-up scenes are clear – even in the rapid-fire opening montages of Californians stressed and frustrated by modernity – it’s all good. Aspect Ratio is 2:40:1 (Full Screen), Audio is English and Italian True HD 5.1 while Subtitles are Danish, Finnish, Nordic, Swedish, English and Italian. 

The Jane Austen Book Club is not quite a rom-com nor a full-on girly fest - it's much better than that. Like Austen's writing, it's properly romantic and wordy-delicious and you will want to return to it like an illicit ice-cream tub in a fridge with your name on it. More importantly, you can't help but feel that real heart, belief and joy went into the making of this little film and all concerned had a total blast doing it. Crack the spine (if you haven’t already) on this literary/filmic peach…

BLU RAY Specifications:

REGIONS: A, B and C (all regions)
ASPECT: High Definition Widescreen 2.40:1 (1.78:1 and 16.9)
AUDIO: English TrueHD 5.1 and Italian TrueHD 5.1
SUBTITLES: Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, English and English for the Hard Of Hearing

BONUS Material:
Cast And Crew Commentary (Subtitles in English and Italian)
Behind-The-Scenes of The Jane Austen Book Club
The Life Of Jane Austen
The Book Club: Deconstructed
Walking The Red Carpet Los Angeles Premier (DVD-only feature)
Deleted Scenes
Trailers

Barcode for Danish disc is 5051159223470 – they're using it for UK releases too

PS: The Jane Austen Book Club BLU RAY was reissued/repackaged 25 August 2026 in the USA but even though it has extra audio and subtitles (French, Spanish, Portuguese etc) - unfortunately it comes with little else changed or added to its preceding 2008 issue…