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Austenland by Jerusha Hess
85 Plays4 days ago
What if Pride & Prejudice was about a hopelessly romantic American named Jane who dropped her life savings on a trip to England to take part in a personalised fantasy romance at a Regency themed live-in experience? What if the woman who owns the venue it is inexplicably horrible to her the whole time? What if she accidentally falls in love with her own Mr Darcy for real?
Stefanie and Melinda discuss the absolutely stacked cast of Jane Austen adaptation alumni who feature in the film, the obsession in early aughts films with depicting single women in their 30s as desperate losers, and the intense flashbacks this movie gave them to particular (and particularly unhinged) adaptation that featured in Season 1, in Austenland directed by Jerusha Hess.
Links & Mentions
Want to get lost in a rabbit hole that Stefanie cut from the episode? Read up on Regency House Party, the insane reality dataing show that forced signle people to live an incredibly accurate Regency lifestyle while trying to find love... think insanly accurate, like washing your hair with egg whites, and being forced to sleep in a broom closet-sized room off the side of your chaperone's rooms because the producers designated you a lowly "lady's companion", level of accurate.
The Indiewire faux pas is linked here.
The Guardian review can be found in full here.
MaryAnn Johanson's review can be found here.
If you need subtitles or a transcript, these are available through Apple Podcasts. Please note, they are auto generated so we apologise in advance for it not correctly understanding our accents on certain words.
As always you can find us (and our memes) on Instagram @janeaustenremixed and you can contact us via janeaustenremixed@gmail.com.
Join us every second Monday to hear all about a new adaptation of our favourite classic novel. Next episode we will be watching The Cuffing Game by Lyla Lee. If you're reading along, we encourage you to buy secondhand or support your local independent bookshop, where possible.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Schedule Change
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey there, listeners. Melinda here. You might have noticed that this is not the adaptation that we previewed at the end of our last episode, and you have our sincere apologies. Stephanie has had a horrendous cold for a few weeks and has straight up lost her voice at this point. Thankfully, we don't often record in order, and this is an episode we had in the bag pre-illness. So rather than make you wait or listen to a full ASMR-style episode where Stephanie whispers into the mic the entire time, we've mixed up the scheduling a little bit.
Content Warning and Film Introduction
00:00:30
Speaker
Thanks for your patience. Hey all, before we start this episode of Jane Austen Remixed, a content warning for this week's film, Austenland, directed by Jerusha Hess.
00:00:41
Speaker
Our discussion of this adaptation contains references to sexual assault. These mentions are brief and they will only be referenced as they relate to the film's plot and themes. If this topic might be uncomfortable for you, please feel free to give this episode a skip.
00:00:55
Speaker
We'll be back again in two weeks. Otherwise, let's begin. Hey, Melinda. Hey, Stephanie. What if I told you Pride and Prejudice was actually about a tragically lonely 30-something American who makes the baffling decision to drop her life savings on a trip to England to roleplay a Jane Austen fantasy romance with a bunch of actors in what honestly feels like a Regency-themed internment camp?
00:01:23
Speaker
I'm sure all of us have thought about going along to some sort of Austen-themed holiday. i know I sure have. I think I draw the line at internment camp.
00:01:47
Speaker
Welcome to Jane Austen Remixed, where we investigate the mobile phone banning and yet inexplicably glue gun wielding world of Pride and Prejudice adaptations.
00:01:57
Speaker
I'm Stephanie. And I'm Melinda. And today we'll be examining the 2013 film Austenland, directed by Jerusa Hess. I know that intro was a very deep cut, but you'll understand in time.
Trailer and Initial Thoughts
00:02:10
Speaker
So to kick us off, I'm actually going to play us the audio from the official trailer. What separates the casual Jane Austen fan? Oh, Janie, it's gotten so much worse. From the aficionado. The number of times she's read Austen's novels.
00:02:25
Speaker
her consuming love for Mr. Darcy. She finds her way here. To the world's only immersive Austen experience.
00:02:38
Speaker
You're going to the Darcy place too? Yes. I memorized the first three chapters of Pride and Prejudice when I was 13. What's that?
00:02:48
Speaker
Welcome to the Regency era. Look at those. I expect to my guests to eschew all things modern. May I present Miss Jane Erstwhile, an orphan of no fortune. oh.
00:03:02
Speaker
You have paid for the basic copper package. You're in the servants' wing. You're in the creepy tower. so mad I wasted all my money.
00:03:13
Speaker
darcy guys I hear there was a ball on her last night. Do you enjoy dancing? Not particularly. You have been unlucky in love. I am single because apparently the only good men are fictional.
00:03:25
Speaker
what do you guys think of that girl, Jane? She's a bit peculiar. You try to catch her out. Callie, how a hunting we will go. I'm kind of a mess, aren't I?
00:03:36
Speaker
I'm going to take charge of my story. An Austin heroine gets engaged by the end of the book. That is what I'm going to do. Please, let's you're right.
00:03:48
Speaker
So, Melinda, I need your thoughts.
Stephanie Meyer as Producer and Sundance Debut
00:03:52
Speaker
Also, have you seen this one? Okay. Unlike Bridget Jones's Diary and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the movies, which I can pretty much quote verbatim, I've got this feeling I have seen this movie. I don't think I saw it in theatres.
00:04:08
Speaker
I think I might have seen it later. But other than Jennifer Coolidge, I have no recollection of this movie. Like absolutely nothing stuck in my head. so it's usually a pretty good indication I didn't like it, but this is going to be a complete mystery to me because I genuinely do not remember it. The trailer was very strange. Yes. It's a fever dream. Again, Jennifer Coolidge. That's about all I remember. And also what is it with painting people who enjoy Austen novels as some sort of pathetic, obsessed, and fangirls are a good thing, but i'm going to use the word fangirl here because it's the only way to describe what she's going through.
00:04:50
Speaker
yeah what shes Hold that thought. Okay, anyway, we don't all have Mr. Darcy was here written above our beds. That's just gross, guys. can we Can we not?
00:05:02
Speaker
Can we not? I'm going leave my thoughts for the end of the episode because I do talk about this in the analysis. Otherwise, before we jump into the spoiler chat, an apology, dear listeners, I realised way, way too late that this film is based on a book of the same name, written by Shannon Hale and published in 2007.
00:05:25
Speaker
So while I will take a moment to note a few differences in plot between the two versions, this episode is just about the film.
Casting Choices and Effectiveness
00:05:34
Speaker
And now, ah but a bit of background on said film, because some of these connections I uncovered, I say that like an investigative journalist that were very easy to find, are pretty wild to me. This is actually the first quote-unquote independent film produced by none other than Twilight author Stephanie Meyer.
00:05:51
Speaker
Yes. What? The sparkly vampire lover herself. Again, I say, What? that's That's baffling. This film is also the directorial debut of Hess, who happens to have co-written one of my favourite films of all time, Napoleon Dynamite.
00:06:07
Speaker
She also co-wrote this film along with Hale, the book author. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and it sparked a huge bidding war for distribution rights. to the point where it was reported at the time by IndieWire.
00:06:21
Speaker
And, hilariously, the journalist who wrote this article clearly knows nothing about Pride and Prejudice. I will quote for you. The target of multiple bids since its world premiere, the comedy features Kerry Russell as a woman obsessed with Mr Darcy from the recent film version of Pride and Prejudice.
00:06:40
Speaker
Whoa! Now, to remind everyone, why is this hilarious? Literally, every other article ever written about this film, and indeed the book itself, quotes the author as saying that Colin Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy was pivotal in her deciding to start writing the book in the first place, and the film itself heavily features a cardboard cutout of Firth as Darcy.
00:07:07
Speaker
But yeah, it was the 2005 McFadden Darcy that spits inspired this whole thing. Okay, so if you want to watch the movie first or even go hog wild and read the book as well, jump out here and we'll see you later for the spoiler chat.
00:07:21
Speaker
Now, again, I'm going to derail us slightly. Before we crack on with the plot and themes, we have to talk about the cast. It is pretty stacked, not just with notable actors, Kerry Russell and Jennifer Coolidge, with the latter at her scenery chewing best.
00:07:34
Speaker
But there is also quite the who's who of random Austen adaptation stars in a way that had me shouting, oh my God, it's that guy at the screen more than once.
Plot Overview and Protagonist's Devotion
00:07:44
Speaker
Ooh, okay.
00:07:45
Speaker
I do not remember any of these. Let me jog your memory. Now, please note, I am not a romantic comedy fan. No shade on the genre, but my comfort films are dumb action movies. And as such, I knew absolutely nothing about this film other than that Kerry Russell was in it because I saw her on the poster.
00:08:03
Speaker
Now, the first and most obvious casting choice is that the romantic lead is played by J.J. Field, who also infamously has a lot of Austen fans are fanning themselves over his portrayal of Henry Tilney in the 2007 Made for TV film adaptation of Northanger Abbey.
00:08:21
Speaker
If you're as chronically online as we are... You won't have been able to miss the supercuts of him discussing muslin in a way that should not really be that attractive with protagonist Catherine Morland. Another easter egg for those who listened to the Marvel minisode, JJ Field also played my personal favourite Howling Commando, James Montgomery Falsworth, in Captain America The First Avenger.
00:08:44
Speaker
And I was very, yes, he's the British one in the beret. Melinda immediately opened the window to Google him. my goodness. And I was absolutely devastated that he did not reprise that role when the Howling Commandos popped up in an episode of Agent Carter.
00:09:00
Speaker
Yes, agreed. Oh my goodness. I watched the trailer and i'm like, okay, so he's going to be the romantic lead. But I did not realise it was the same guy.
00:09:10
Speaker
the next actor you'll recognise is James Callis, who plays Colonel Andrews in the film and who also starred in the 2001 film adaptation of Bridget Jones's Diary.
00:09:21
Speaker
What? He played Tom, one of Bridget's besties and the one who yells about it being a real fight in the most iconic fight scene of all time.
00:09:32
Speaker
oh that's so funny. He's got a mustache, so he's a bit harder to recognize. It took me a minute to be like, Why is that guy familiar? And the final deep cut is actor Rupert Vansertart, here playing the lecherous Mr Wattlesbrook, husband of the proprietor of Austin Land, who also played none other than Mr Hurst in the 1995 BBC adaptation. Yes, him of the horrible wife card playing and snoring. Oh, okay. That's wild.
00:10:05
Speaker
Okay. Yes. So the casting director knew the brief and I think they nailed it. Does the rest of the film live up to the casting?
00:10:16
Speaker
Let's dive in and find out. The film opens with the most deranged opening sequence. I swear, I watched it three times before I realised that Kerry Russell is meant to be, I think, high school aged in the first bit of this almost montage.
00:10:34
Speaker
Oh. She's in a cafe with Dorothy-esque Platts trying to look nerdy and gawky. I'm sorry, have you seen Kerry Russell? She's stunning. Please stop. while drinking from a china teacup that I think were meant to deduce that she brought there by herself.
00:10:48
Speaker
It then cuts to her in college taking a Jane Austen-focused English class. What kind of nerd would do that? I know. Looking very happy to be there, while carrying both a notebook and a tote bag that are plastered with massive text that says, i heart Darcy, in the same font as those I heart New York t-shirts that everyone briefly owned. And then it cuts to Jane as an adult in her very kitschy and I think meant to be ye olde English themed but just kind of looks like a 90 year old woman lives there apartment.
00:11:21
Speaker
She's watching the wetshirt scene while a man kisses the side of her neck in an attempt at seduction. She pushes him away and says, this is the best part. And then he then huffs, storms out of the apartment and on his way out punches her life-size cutout of Mr. Colin Darcy Firth in the face as he goes.
00:11:40
Speaker
She rushes to fix it and kisses it on the mouth, oblivious to the man who has stormed out. Now, I want your thoughts on this, Melinda. But I have to say first, this film is trying really hard to make us think that she is a hopeless, lovelorn loser whose unhealthy obsession with Darcy is ruining her chance at love. What I have to ask is, Why on earth would she want this stale ham sandwich of a man who is waving a red flag the size of a, what did you call it in the other episode, a semaphore flag? yes seaphore Yeah, yeah.
00:12:10
Speaker
He is jealous of a fictional man that his date likes and actually physically assaults a cardboard cutout. Girl, no. That man is not safe to be around if he cannot control his anger towards, let me remind you, a cardboard cutout.
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah, that bit was in the trailer. I didn't realise she was watching the titular wet shirt scene. Yeah. But... That was in the trailer and I remember thinking him punching the cardboard cutout was weird. Yep.
00:12:40
Speaker
But also, girl, what are you doing watching it with a guy who doesn't want to watch it? i I'm making assumptions here about their relationship. If it's further down the track, you are a Pride and Prejudice fan, of course you're going to show the person that you like the things that you like, right? That's part of what you do. You introduce, hey, I like this. It goes both ways. Yes.
00:13:02
Speaker
The fact that he's not even trying to watch and then he storms out. Yeah, it just, they're so desperate to make her seem like a clueless loser right from the start and so desperate to make it seem like the source of her clueless loserishness is her love of Jane Austen. Anyway, we'll come back to it.
00:13:24
Speaker
Let's park that for now. Okay, so as for the plot itself, we are introduced to our protagonist, Jane Hayes, a quote, 30 plus clock ticking. woman who is apparently such a alone that i see you looking frustrated melinda such a lonely romantic basket case that a greasy slimeball who is apparently her ex-boyfriend can waltz up to her desk at work, unclear how he got into her office in the first place, and not only call her, that quote above I just said, to her face, but then also tell her that she has to go on a bowling date with him because her most recent relationship with some other presumable loser named Greg has just ended.
00:14:04
Speaker
Oh, and he breaks her teacup and slaps her on the ass with a ruler in the process of this happening. What? What? So much awfulness just happened in that last minute.
00:14:17
Speaker
I'm not kidding. When I say we are approximately three minutes into the film. Awesome. Okay, so we've made our protagonist out to be a obsessed loser.
Arrival at Austenland and Social Dynamics
00:14:30
Speaker
And the, oh, no, I'm not even going there. He sounds awful. Like he's quite clearly meant to make it look like not only is she a loser, she also dates losers.
00:14:42
Speaker
Anyway, to escape this assault, she looks desperately around her desk cubicle, spies a pamphlet she has pinned to the wall of Austin Land, which she grabs with both hands and then literally runs out of her office.
00:14:58
Speaker
Now, if you happen to be thinking that this reminds you of the beginning of another adaptation that we have covered, you wouldn't be alone. I was having PTSD flashbacks at this point to me and Mr. Darcy. i was going to make this comparison earlier and I was like, oh no, I bet you should bring it up. Yes. And as the plot develops, it begins to smack even more so of the approach to that unhinged season one experience.
00:15:24
Speaker
Because there are vanishingly few references to any of Austen's works outside of Pride and Prejudice, and indeed, like Emily, Jane seems more fixated on Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation rather than any of the broader works of Jane Austen in general.
00:15:39
Speaker
Also like Emily, Jane has dropped a significant amount of money on a trip to the yeah UK to immerse herself in the world of Jane Austen. Only here, she has booked to stay at a Jane Austen-themed retreat slash theme park slash historical reenactment boot camp called, you guessed it, Austenland.
00:15:55
Speaker
The only difference so far is I am as yet not as anti-Jane as I was instantly anti-Emily. But we're only three minutes in and the night is young. Yeah, the the parallels are concerning so far.
00:16:08
Speaker
Okay, we cut to Jane and her as-yet-unnamed friend, who also features in two of the three intro montage scenes, sitting in a travel agency watching an introductory video about said Austin Land, where the proprietor is speaking, dressed in full Regency get-up while cuddling a lamb, which said nameless friend mistakes for a chihuahua.
00:16:30
Speaker
Okay. I have a question. Yes. Why does the travel agency have an introductory video playing about a small theme park in Britain in what I'm guessing is the middle of America?
00:16:43
Speaker
I'm sure the film does not answer this question. No. But it's what came to mind. It does not. I think it's meant to be explained by the travel agency being decked out like the set designer rated every single estate sale in the Midwest of America. Think more old lady porcelain figurines than you can jump over. Right. While...
00:17:04
Speaker
Jane is also being served by a man who looks like an extra from Napoleon Dynamite wandered onto this set by accident. He has big 90s hair, giant 90s spectacles and a full 90s dad goatee. No joke, you could put this character in that other movie and he would not look out of place.
00:17:22
Speaker
Anyway, this weird man with his porcelain figurines is apparently obsessed with Austin Land and really pushing for Jane to go. It's so weird. So the unnamed friend is skeptical of Jane spending her life savings on the trip, and the travel agent then gets to monologue about how this trip will change her life while also plot dumping about what the Austin land experience is.
00:17:45
Speaker
Attendees receive pseudonyms and period costumes, living as ladies of the Regency era and LARPing their very own Regency romance with a male actor whose character is modeled on one of Austin's great romantic heroes, though no touching is allowed.
00:18:00
Speaker
Jane is totally enamoured by the idea, which is obviously meant to solidify her status as a romantic loser who lives in fantasyland inside her own head, while Nameless Friend desperately tries to convince Jane that this is a terrible, terrible idea. Does Nameless Friend get a name?
00:18:18
Speaker
you'll find out We cut here to Jane's literally teapot-lined apartment. And in her bedroom, Jane has doll's house, many stuffed Darcy dolls, one of which speaks with Colin Firth's voice.
00:18:31
Speaker
And she also has... Melinda nearly spat out her water. She also has, as mentioned, giant hand-painted letters on her bedhead that say, Darcy was here. While over her vanity mirror, the giant letters read, Darcy rocks.
00:18:51
Speaker
He talks. Yeah, he talks. He talks with Colin Firth's voice. Don't want to be laughing at a Jane Austen fan because it sounds like the movie's portraying her is awful when she's probably not, but that's funny.
00:19:06
Speaker
Let's take a minute to take a deep rage-filled breath and try to puzzle out why this movie, which is supposedly for Jane Austen fans, is so determined so early on to paint them as feckless losers who have totally lost their grip on reality. This isn't funny or clever, and it certainly doesn't come even slightly close to the satire the writers were apparently aiming for. Satire punches up.
00:19:36
Speaker
This film so far is mercilessly punching down at everyone in the 2010's favourite punching bag, The Single Woman Over 30. Always a loser, always hopeless, and certainly, never, someone who has a career, hobby, friends, and God forbid, has simply chosen not to settle for one of the array of deadbeat men she has had the misfortune to date. At this point, looking at her bedroom, are we supposed to be guffawing? Well, no wonder she can't keep a man. Imagine bringing one back to this room after a date. oh I don't think so.
00:20:09
Speaker
It's so eye-rolling and just so out of touch with the audience they're going for in the most deeply unfunny way. Great. i want to be clear here. I was laughing at the fact that the doll spoke.
00:20:21
Speaker
I was not laughing at the fact that she's a Jane Austen fan. Just given that explanation, it's going to be 100% clear. I accept the doll speaking out of everything I just said. That was an absolute genius move. And they could have just kept it at the speaking doll. If they just kept it at the speaking doll, it would have been great.
00:20:39
Speaker
Well, have seen online. The Jane Austen Centre does have a Darcy rubber duck. Oh my God, I can just picture it. So like they exist, like random of yeah Pride and Prejudice and Darcy paraphernalia exists because we love it.
00:20:56
Speaker
But also, like you said, this is a film for Jane Austen fans and you've just dialed someone's love of something up to like 50 out of 10. Yeah. But also what's wrong with loving something unabashedly, you know? There's nothing wrong with being a fangirl and enjoying a story for how it's told and all of that.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yes. Like, hello, this is what this podcast is. We'll continue with that later. The thing that i don't particularly understand as well here is her friend who is trying to stop her from going.
00:21:33
Speaker
They're also trying to frame her as like a joyless cow. oh They've also made her weirdly mean. She demands a wager that if Jane doesn't find Austenland to be the incredible romantic experience that she's looking for, that when Jane comes home, she has to throw out all of her Austen stuff.
00:21:52
Speaker
What? Yeah. And her friend is also heavily pregnant. No, her friend has a massive fake pregnant belly attached, but still moves around like a regular person, which just really adds to the whole overall uncanny valley feeling of this film. And I think... Her being the friend through the whole, like from high school and then having this massive belly is meant to imply that if Jane wasn't such a freak with such terrible interests, like, I don't know, the works of one of the greatest authors of all time, she too could have found a man and been happily knocked up by this point as well, which of course we know is the only thing that a woman could ever possibly aspire to.
Character Interactions and Romantic Tensions
00:22:29
Speaker
Yeah, making her friend be mean is weird. Yeah. She starts off as a sensible friend and then they get back to the apartment and she becomes the mean girlfriend. And i'm like, make up your mind.
00:22:40
Speaker
Where's her local Jane Austen society? Go have fun. She needs better friends. We then have a hard cut to London where a montage of twee English stuff like the road in front of Buckingham Palace decked out in Union Jacks, a marching band of royal guards in bearskin hats and a woman in a posh looking hat in front of a red telephone booth is bizarrely set to Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlyle.
00:23:05
Speaker
What? It cuts to Jane walking through Heathrow in faux period garb, complete with a bonnet. And she meets up with the always fabulous Jennifer Coolidge, who plays her usual ditzy character with a plum.
00:23:18
Speaker
Jennifer Coolidge's name is Elizabeth, and the character name that she has chosen for Austin Land is Elizabeth Charming. We also learn here... that she has never heard of Pride and Prejudice, but she's looking forward to hooking up with one of those Darcy type men.
00:23:34
Speaker
How does she know what a Darcy type man is if she's never heard of Pride and Prejudice? Okay. Darcy as a figure, I think we discussed this in our Darcy story episode, has kind of transcended into a bit of an icon of himself.
00:23:48
Speaker
Yes. But you still need to know he's at least from a classic book. And she clearly knows he's from Austin because she's going to Austin land.
00:23:59
Speaker
So they're collected in what looks like an early 1900s Rolls Royce by matt Martin the groundskeeper and swept off to meet their hostess, Mrs. Wattlesbrook. She is decked out like a cross between 1995 Mrs. Bennet and 1995 Lady Catherine. She then shades Jane directly to her face about buying the poor people package. Whoa, yeah. And Jane finds out she's been assigned to the name Miss Erstwhile for the duration of her stay and also discovers that she will be excluded from certain activities that the other guests who have played for platinum packages will get to enjoy.
00:24:37
Speaker
Never mind, she seems to have shelled out her entire life savings, so if that's the quote-unquote copper package, how much do the other ones cost? It sounds like a pyramid scheme.
00:24:49
Speaker
like it does How can someone spend that much money? I mean, look, maybe she doesn't have a lot of life savings and that's okay, but what is she? It's like implied that some of the other guests have been there multiple times.
00:25:02
Speaker
So I don't know. Yeah, that's weird. I'm back to the pyramid scheme. It's definitely a scam. The ladies then head up to the main house to get their rooms assigned and to meet their great romantic heroes at the big house.
00:25:15
Speaker
I actually think Jane's copper level room is much nicer than the hot pink chintzy nightmare of the platinum room. Anyway, they go to meet the men and a few things happen. Jane finds out her character has been assigned as a charity case orphan who they've kindly taken under their wing. She's dressed in chocolate brown and they've given her this hairdo that makes her look horrendous. Again, what the hell? She's desperately trying to enjoy herself at this point and they are going out of their way to make her miserable and I don't understand why.
00:25:47
Speaker
I'm sure the owner of Austerland is kind of being portrayed as a Lady Catherine. That was the vibe I got from the trailer anyway. But still, if you've got people paying... You have to make it experience for them and actually make it worth it.
00:26:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'll go more into my feelings in this at the end, but I'm right there with you. so Colonel Andrews, our friend Tom from Bridget Jones's Diary, is charmingly gallant and very camp, while Mr. Nobly is sneering from behind a comically large copy of a book titled Moral Dilemmas in Elizabethan Crop Production.
00:26:23
Speaker
So what, okay, moral dilemmas in Elizabethan production? Moral dilemmas. Moral dilemmas. Also, Elizabethan wrong time period. I know. Even if they're supposed to be acting in Regency England. Okay, i need to stop. i need to stop.
00:26:41
Speaker
and We also meet the third lady in the party, an attractively decked out, Lady Amelia Hartwright, who at first meeting appears to be our Caroline Bingley. Over dinner, Jane and Nobly get off on the wrong foot in a conversation about how he doesn't enjoy dancing or balls.
00:26:57
Speaker
Sound familiar? But the conversation is interrupted by Lady Hartwright revealing, in a very Caroline Bingley way, that Mrs. Waterbrook told her that she has, quote-unquote, researched Jane's real life...
00:27:11
Speaker
and found out that Jane is a sadly pathetic left-on-the-shelf woman, while in the background, Mrs. Wattlesbrook, again, I will remind you, the person that Jane is paying good money to be there, pipes in with tick-tock, tick-tock in the background.
00:27:27
Speaker
No. Oh, that's awful. The other guests, including Mr. Nobly, have the humanity to look utterly horrified that these two women would attack Jane so ungraciously.
00:27:40
Speaker
She, quite rightly, gets up from the table and leaves, obviously devastated. Now, she is a better woman than me, because if I was there, I can tell you that some of that overly primped dinner food would have been dumped all over both of them.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, I can see you doing that. I would have walked out. it And there is your difference between the two podcast hosts, everyone. The next day, Jane abandons a promenade in the park and finds Martin the groundskeeper at the stables.
00:28:07
Speaker
Side note, the actor is using his actual New Zealand accent here. And while he started the first few scenes speaking in a British accent, he drops into his native New Zealand accent. And at the time, i was wondering how many people would notice...
00:28:22
Speaker
Turns out at the end, Jane didn't realise he was Kiwi. She thought oh he was British the entire time. It is funny, but it's actually sadly accurate. The party of six then go off hunting?
00:28:34
Speaker
They are trap shooting at stuffed pheasants which are being flung through the sky on clay pigeons. So there's no need for a trigger warning here. Pun intended. They're assisted by Martin and Jane and he have a nice flirty time until he abandons her on the way back to the manor and it begins to pour with rain.
00:28:54
Speaker
As she's walking home in the rain, Nobly gallops up on his horse searching for her. insists she gets on said horse, then rips her dress open up to the thigh so that he can hoist her onto the front of the saddle, gets on behind her and then gallops them back to the manor. I can see your face, Melinda. Yes, it is excellent. Yes, you should all look it up on YouTube. This is the best scene in the film.
00:29:17
Speaker
Okay, that's not what I was thinking. It's delightful. It's done in a really funny, funny way. do you want me to ruin this for you and tell you what I was thinking?
00:29:30
Speaker
You were thinking, ugh, tacky. Oh, how unbecoming is that in a Regency thing? And wow, it sounds like Emily and Mr. Darcy on that. Yes, it does. But actually, this is how you make that terrible scene romantic. And you want to know how you make it romantic? The actors are J.J. Field and Kerry Russell. That's how. Because literally anyone else in this script, I would have been cringing and dying on the inside. But they are both so charming.
00:30:00
Speaker
You can't help but enjoy it. Okay. I'll reserve judgment until I watch it. So later that night, Jane sneaks out of a whist party and finds Martin playing a saxophone in… the shed? His bedroom?
00:30:15
Speaker
Unclear. And just when you think they're about to hook up, he takes her into the stable to witness him helping with the birth of a foal. What? And then they kiss.
00:30:27
Speaker
And yes, before you ask, he is still covered in horse afterbirth gunk. That was not a phrase I was expecting him to hear this evening. So then it's the next day and Jane s sneaks off again and her and Martin hang out in a rowboat and then make out on a picnic blanket before Martin has to go back and do, you know, the job that he's being paid to do.
00:30:47
Speaker
Jane is not as sneaky as she thinks though as Nobly, who is broodingly reading his giant book again, sees them at it. But before we can deal with this little thing that's happening, the party is joined by Captain George East, who has apparently just returned from the West Indies. And apart from being incredibly handsome, he's sort of dressed like a pirate. It's a great entrance. He really hams it up. And he starts telling the ladies stories of his naval conquests. which culminates in him kissing up Jane's arm like he's Gomez Adams. Okay.
00:31:18
Speaker
He's a sobacter in his regular life outside Austin land. And it's very, you know, Bold and the Beautiful kind of. Yeah. it's It's very extra. Okay. And of course, Martin sees all of this and gets huffy.
00:31:31
Speaker
He brushes her off when she sneaks off again to find him and she asks him the utterly deranged question, are you breaking up with me? Girl, be so for real right now.
00:31:42
Speaker
He, apart from the fact that he's being a twat, rightly points out that they weren't quote unquote going steady and then he flounces off. So we then cut to the evening and the ladies are being forced to play the piano, reminiscent of the scene at Rosings.
00:31:58
Speaker
They obviously cannot play or sing, but Jane gallantly takes to the piano and plays what is apparently the only song she knows how to tinkle on the ivories, which is the immortal piano banger we all know. hot in here.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yes. The one by Nelly. How does she know how to play that on the piano? I feel like of all instruments, the piano is not the instrument that one plays that song on.
00:32:26
Speaker
She doesn't get far before Mrs. Wattlesbrook slams the keyboard cover shut. But in the meantime, we do get treated to nobly bopping in the background before before that happens. Again, with his comically large book in hand.
00:32:40
Speaker
Elizabeth and Crop Dilemmas and Nellie. Odellie, really a lovely at evening. Now, Jane is quite pleased with how much she has managed to annoy Mrs Wattlesbrook because they're just in parent all-out war now, takes her leave of the room and heads out to the stables again to find Martin, but this time nobly follows her to politely, in character but also kind of not, warn her off, quote, cavorting with the servants because he thinks that there is something off about Martin.
00:33:13
Speaker
Irritated, Jane heads back into the house and we come to the most inexplicable part of this whole mess. Yes, truly, this is the worst. As she goes inside, Mr Wattlesbrook, reminder, played by 1995 Mr Hurst, bails Jane up in the corridor and attempts to force himself on her.
00:33:33
Speaker
What? She fights him off and knocks him to the floor before Nobly and Colonel Andrews come rushing in They are completely unsurprised by this turn of events, and indeed the Colonel is overheard saying to him that he isn't going to cover for him anymore.
00:33:51
Speaker
Oh my goodness. It is a pyramid scheme. With awful people. Great. great The whole thing is played off as a joke.
00:34:02
Speaker
It's super gross and just... why was this scene included? Well, you'll find out later, dear listeners.
Climactic Events and Character Motivations
00:34:10
Speaker
Great. Side note. We're almost exactly halfway through the film at this point.
00:34:16
Speaker
Jane calls her friend to complain about the trip and we learn for the first time that bestie's name is Molly. Okay. That's so weird. They must have had a deleted scene or something.
00:34:27
Speaker
They've cut something out and you just... Anyway, Molly tries to convince her to leave and just come home. Again, she's back to being sensible friend. Instead, Jane decides to really throw herself into the last few days of the trip, take control of her journey and find true love.
00:34:43
Speaker
Which, girl, you signed up for a romance scam, sorry, romance LARP, and it's not real. You know that they're actors. What true love are you expecting to find?
00:34:54
Speaker
Also in how many days? Like seven. Okay, that's more than I thought. i haven't counted. It could be less. One does not find true love in less than a week.
00:35:06
Speaker
No, Anyway, Jane and Jennifer Coolidge as Elizabeth decide to nick off with some of Amelia's gazillion period gowns that she has come with and give Jane a makeover so that she can really give it a red hot go. Her entrance into the following scene after her makeover is set to Betty Davis' eyes and his is my second favourite scene in the film. It genuinely made me giggle out loud.
00:35:34
Speaker
Kerry Russell flounces. There's no other word for it. flounces through a montage of like other guests and servants. She flirts with the staff. She flirts with anyone she can lay eyes on. It's incredible. It's inspiring. It really made me giggle. And this was a level of seriousness we should have had for this entire film.
00:35:53
Speaker
None. Zero. But then her grand return is interrupted by Mrs. Wattlesbrook turning up with a sneering Martin pulling a hay bale cart to tell Jane that she's being evicted for having a mobile phone on the premises.
00:36:10
Speaker
What was she supposed to do with it after needing it with her to travel from one country to another? Was she supposed to eat it? Yeah, like there wasn't like a lockbox. They're told they're a allowed to have phones with them and then there is a scene where the servants are dressing Kerry Russell in her horrible brown dress and she visibly sticks her hot pink mobile phone down her corset.
00:36:33
Speaker
Oh, that was in the trailer. Yeah. So she's meant to be hiding it because they're not allowed to have phones, but they've all seen that she still has it. Also, if you don't want them having phones, but they're still allowed to use glue guns, what they doing? Yeah.
00:36:46
Speaker
Anyway, she has to- Also bury it at the bottom of a suitcase. like I know, but it was in her room who was snooping through her things. There are so many level layers to this, but also yet again, this horrible woman is so happy. You can tell how happy she is that she's getting to evict a Jane from the premises. Why do you even sell copper packages, you deranged bat?
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's a choice. At this point, Amelia steps in and says it was her phone. She brought it by accident and asked Jane to hide it for her so she wouldn't be tempted to use it. Mrs Wattlesbrook is very apologetic.
00:37:22
Speaker
And then Amelia turns around and blackmails Jane into helping her spend more time with Captain East, who apparently she knows from the last time she was at Austin Land when they were betrothed, but her father broke it off because East wasn't a captain.
00:37:36
Speaker
It's giving very basic nod to persuasion. Look, I was going to ask earlier if the fact that we have a captain in here is this persuasion. But yeah, that's... Also, why is the other guest... I know she's rich, but like, why are we apologizing to one guest and then not with the other?
00:37:53
Speaker
yeah Because she's rich and she keeps coming back. It makes no sense. Continue. makes no sense. A bit after this, they are told to pair up and practice for the performance of a play that Mrs Wattlesbrook has written, and Jane begrudgingly picks nobly.
00:38:10
Speaker
They unexpectedly start to bond and flirt, especially when he opens up her sketchbook to find it filled with sketches of him. Jane says she's been trying to make out his character. Eye roll. Just see what you're doing there. Yep. Okay. But if you're if you're begrudgingly pairing up with someone, one why have you spent the trip drawing the guy?
00:38:33
Speaker
She's sketching at various parts and it's like commented on, but also he's only there like one time when she's sketching. So she's sketching him from memory. Yeah.
00:38:44
Speaker
It's very strange. It's very strange. So they are wandering around, resolutely not practicing for the play, and they witness Amelia and Captain East hooking up in the most hilarious, over-the-top way. They're like mauling each other.
00:38:59
Speaker
And Jane comments that she worries that other people in the experience can't tell the difference between fantasy and real life. Jane, neither can you. You keep telling everyone here that you're here to find true love. Like, you're the one that got upset because a guy was playing Mr Darcy to you.
00:39:17
Speaker
yeah that, yep, yep. Anyway, they put the play on. Jennifer Coolidge starts it off by coming out of a shell as Aphrodite. It's perfect. And whoever put J.J. Field in a teeny tiny tunic as a Greek soldier has my forever blessing.
Resolution and Thematic Analysis
00:39:33
Speaker
Although i would like to point out it is horribly historically inaccurate and he looks much more like a Roman senator in a mini dress.
00:39:40
Speaker
But I shan't be complaining. The play is a bin fire of the kind of physical slapstick that early 2010s films love. One of the men gets accidentally hit in the crotch, Amelia gets poked in the eye, you know. But we do get a cute moment when Nobly goes off script and confesses his actual love for Jane before he has to then comedically die. in front of her. The amount of seriousness with which the actors approach this play within the movie is, again, the amount of seriousness that this whole film requires.
00:40:11
Speaker
i think there's there is a performance of a play in Mansfield Park. Yes, I think they are trying to allude here briefly to Mansfield Park. So, you know, they're trying to bring in the other Austen books. in a very oblique way.
00:40:25
Speaker
Immediately after this, Jane grabs Nobly and like drags him off to her bedroom because they're suddenly like giggly teenagers together. But he gallantly walks back out of her room and then talks to her through the door to preserve her decorum. It sounds stupid, but because he is a great actor, it comes across as really romantic. But then he knocks on the door again, asks to come back in, kisses her on the hand in a way that was very, hello, and then he dashes off again.
00:40:56
Speaker
My God, these two actors deserved a better script. So the next evening is the ball where Martin comes along, tries to chat up Jane and tries to get her to leave with him. But nobly cuts him off and asks for the two dancers that he had asked Jane to reserve for him when they spoke through the door the evening before. Right. It's very lovely, but her bare shoulders are so incredibly distracting.
00:41:18
Speaker
It's giving 2005 Caroline Bingley. yep, yep yep Anyway, Nobly, mid-dance, tries to confess his feelings, but he's interrupted by the other actors loudly and very performatively, proposing marriage to Elizabeth and Amelia in turn. Nobly looks distressed and he drags Jane out of the room away from all theatrics and confesses that he's in love with her for real.
00:41:45
Speaker
Of course, she thinks it's all an act. and suddenly realizes that she doesn't want a weird fake fantasy love, she wants real love. I'm just so confused as to how this all tracks. The whole way through she's been saying she wants real romantic love story and to take control of her own story, and yet she's in a place populated by actors and fakery trying to achieve this, and only now she starts to think that that's weird.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So she leaves and she goes off to find Martin and tells him about Nobly's quote-unquote fake proposal. He didn't propose.
00:42:19
Speaker
And Jane says that she's glad that Martin is outside of the fake stories and they plan to meet up in London. Can you hear the warning bells starting to ring Oh, yeah. I mean, I'd kind of, I was wondering, is either him Wickham or is was it Colonel Andrews was Wickham?
00:42:39
Speaker
But I was fairly confident it was going to be the guy that she was actually crushing Mm-hmm. So it's the next morning and Jane and Amelia are leaving the experience in a carriage when Amelia reveals to her that Nobly asked her to pretend the phone was hers so that Jane wouldn't have to leave. ah And the reveals keep coming when Mrs. Wattlesbrook tells Jane that Martin is also an actor and he was in fact the one scripted to be her great romantic hero of the trip, not Mr. Nobly.
00:43:09
Speaker
He was just there to distract Amelia until Captain East arrived because he is weirdly her actual real life nephew. Okay, when you said real life nephew, I thought you meant Amelia's real life nephew and I got very confused for a second. No, no, he's Mrs Wattlesbrook's nephew for real. Okay, that's heaps better.
00:43:30
Speaker
Jane is so upset by the reveal about Martin, she decides to use her sexual assault at the hands of Mr Wattlesbrook to threaten to get Austin Land shut down.
00:43:42
Speaker
There is nothing done to the perpetrator. Oh no the assault is only used to threaten and blackmail another woman. i mean, granted, she is awful and she has clearly covered up her husband's previous assaults, but at least get the attempted rapist arrested first.
00:44:01
Speaker
It's such a bizarre and ugly... twist dressed up as what's meant to be I think like a girl power moment are we supposed to be cheering on Jane as she you know is standing up for herself against the evil bully but it really doesn't sit well When in this scenario, Jane is remarkably unscathed and has just completely moved on from her attack, in and of itself super unrealistic.
00:44:27
Speaker
But then to have the only recourse she's going to take be her threatening the wife of the perpetrator. It's a big ick. Oh, yeah, that's, no, that's that's awful.
00:44:41
Speaker
That's really bad. Oh. Yeah.
Critique on Fandom Portrayal and Societal Implications
00:44:46
Speaker
So from there we cut to Martin hanging out in the servants' area, being a twat, and making fun of Nobly for losing Jane because in his words she was so desperate anyone should have been able to snag her. Ewwwww no no.
00:45:01
Speaker
Nobly punches him, Martin cackles with glee at having upset him, and then they get a call from Mrs Wattlesbrook demanding that Martin follow Jane to the airport to soothe her quote-unquote ruffled feathers.
00:45:15
Speaker
Oh, gross. Cut to the airport and Martin has turned up to try and convince Jane that it was all real love between them and now, of course, his true colours being revealed, he's quite smarmy and gross.
00:45:27
Speaker
And then Nobly appears and tries gallantly to save Jane. She tells them both to bugger off and the best bit, there is an extra, a man, right next to Jane with exactly the same I heart Darcy Toad.
00:45:42
Speaker
Okay. Anyway, the men physically fight, not a patch on Bridget Jones, and Jane gets knocked over in the process. Nobody tries to dust her off and tries to convince her that he is telling the truth about his feelings, but she just pats him on the cheek and thanks him for being perfect, even if he's not real, and walks off to get her flight.
00:46:01
Speaker
Sounds like maybe a little bit of character growth. I think so. Again, it sits oddly with where she started, which I'll hold on to because I'm sure you'll come back to that.
00:46:11
Speaker
Then we cut to her at home and there's a montage of her removing the dolls and the giant lettering from her bedroom. She also puts the by now semi-headless Darcy Firth cutout beside the door to be chucked out. There's a knock at the door while she's making a cup of tea and she thinks it's Molly, but it's nobly.
00:46:28
Speaker
He has come to return her sketchbook. And as he walks in, he reattaches Darcy Firth's head, symbolizing, you know, fantasy isn't dead. He's the good one.
00:46:40
Speaker
Putting aside him turning up to her house unannounced as being weird stalker behavior, is simply delightful as he reintroduces himself to her properly as Henry Nobly, the aforementioned real-life nephew of the insane Waddlesbrooks, and a history professor. Jane is reluctant to believe him when he says that he is crazy about her and that this is all some weird fantasy going on inside her own head. And he says, she has it the wrong way around. This this so sounds so stupid. He isn't her fantasy.
00:47:10
Speaker
She is his fantasy. It's way cuter than it has any right to be because JJ Field is amazing. And then the film ends with them making out.
00:47:21
Speaker
Now, as far as I am concerned, this was a missed opportunity to have a very pregnant Molly come through the still open door of the apartment and go into labor at the shock of seeing Jane making out with such a hottie.
00:47:32
Speaker
That would have changed. The tone. a lot. But it would have ended the film with a level of seriousness that it requires. None.
00:47:43
Speaker
Now the screen says the end, but then we're actually catapulted headfirst into a weird fever dream Austin Land video showing that Elizabeth has bought it and turned it into a ghastly looking theme park, which appears to be the unholy love child of Disneyland and the Queen of Hearts Castle from the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film.
00:48:00
Speaker
What? feel like that's the only word I've said this episode. What has she done? Austerland is gone and now it's this. He's made it like a theme park that people can just visit. Okay. Less romance scam. That's good.
00:48:15
Speaker
Yeah. There's like a carousel and like swan boats and I don't know. It's all very strange. The weirdest part of it is that all of the horrible characters are still there. Like the Wattlesbrooks are still there. Mr. Wattlesbrook is not in jail where he should be. He apparently works at Austin Land as the garbage collector.
00:48:35
Speaker
Like, I'm sorry, we meant to see them be like, ha ha ha, you got what he deserved. No, he should be in jail. Yeah, yuck. So just going to touch on the book here very briefly. Shannon Hale is a self-confessed Austen superfan who discovered the author in her teen years, and she is a huge fan of the BBC adaptation, citing it as an influence and even dedicating this novel to Firth himself.
00:48:56
Speaker
oh Okay. Shoot your shot, I suppose. Yeah, why not? In terms of plot changes, again, please remember, I haven't read this. Apparently the book starts with Jane accidentally revealing her secret obsession with Colin Firth to her great aunt Carolyn. Her aunt then dies and her subsequent will is the catalyst for Jane's big trip, Carolyn having explicitly left her the means to visit Austenland.
00:49:18
Speaker
This seems very sweet, but also sounds a little bit like your beloved great aunt died thinking you were so hopeless at dating that you needed a fake romance holiday scam with an actor, like a remedial maths class.
00:49:31
Speaker
Anyway, in the book, Jane decides when she comes back, she will give up on dating. Again, my most hated trope. She's 32. And I say that as someone who very much understands the hellscape of modern dating culture in your thirty s Also in the book, she apparently gets assigned a fake aunt and uncle to like chaperone her.
00:49:54
Speaker
They are never mentioned again in any of the synopses that I could find. So I don't know what happens to them. In the book, Jane is caught with her phone because she asks her friend to Google stalk Martin and Mr. Nobly.
00:50:07
Speaker
And her friend comes back with the goods. I don't know how. So her friend is either in the CIA or Mr. Nobly is apparently a regular in Tatler because apparently the friend finds out that Mr. Nobly forgave his ex-wife for quote many offenses during their marriage before they finally divorced four years previous to the time frame of the book.
00:50:25
Speaker
I know us millennial girlies love a good like social stalk but that's a level of information even I could not uncover. Skip to the end and martin and Nobly also find Jane at the airport. However, after they squabble over her and she has walked off and she sits down on her flight, Mr. Nobly inexplicably is on the flight as well in the seat next to hers.
00:50:49
Speaker
Mr. Nobly apparently reintroduces himself as Henry, tells her that he's in love with her, and then they fly together to New York and I assume live happily ever after? okay that's significantly different.
00:51:02
Speaker
Yeah. So on to the analysis. Reviews at the time were a mixed bag, despite the frothing fight over distribution rights, which still… Anyway, a particular highlight for me was a review from Zan Brooks in The Guardian, who begins with a rather startling and very visually intriguing comparison.
00:51:21
Speaker
Hess's mock Regency comedy is so actively inept and so horribly precarious that it becomes curiously engrossing, like watching a monkey spin plates or a blindfolded dog attempting to ride a unicycle.
00:51:33
Speaker
What a metaphor. i know. I do have to point out that middle-aged men writing scathing reviews of films that are so clearly not for them and that they have clearly made no effort to understand is a pet hate of mine, but the film also cops some heat from reviewers who are ardent Austen fans, with another reviewer summarising her opinion as, Austenland, allow me to tell you how ardently I loathe and despise you.
00:51:56
Speaker
but That's funny. I like that. The reviewer here, Marianne Johansson, really hit the nail on the head with what was nagging me while watching the film. Our erstwhile protagonist seems to be utterly unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality and is therefore utterly uninterested in taking part in the fantasy of this trip that she has spent her entire life savings on. She uses every opportunity to wander off and complain about it to anyone who will listen. Again, does it sound like Emily?
00:52:26
Speaker
The ghost of Emily haunting you from last season. Now, I know we all love to hate a villain, but I also cannot fathom how the horrendous Mrs Waddlesbrough expects to keep her business thriving by treating her guests like dirt in the age of internet reviews.
00:52:43
Speaker
Additionally, I, like everyone else on the internet seemingly, is completely baffled by her obsession with banning mobile phones when she then forces everyone to use a glue gun during a bonnet making session.
00:52:54
Speaker
Was it meant to be an indictment of her character by the director? Look, she can't even stick to her own rules. Or did they simply not think it through that far? Honestly, it's hard to tell.
00:53:04
Speaker
This film is like it's still in its draft form. There are seemingly a lot of changes from the book storyline, which I guess is meant to make it more screen friendly. However, it seems like their vision of satirizing, don't know, Austen fanatics, people that wish they'd been born in in a past time period, just women in general. Whoever it is they were meant to be skewering, it simply has not translated well onto screen. It feels like we're watching a first draft because they ran out of time to write it. And that is the thing that really grinds my gears about the underlying premise of this film.
00:53:37
Speaker
What you brought up right at the beginning, Melinda. It makes out Austen's works to be something that only weird cat ladies and losers would be interested in. It frames being interested in and loving Jane Austen as a pursuit for losers, something akin to social leprosy that will see you cast out of regular society, because why would anyone want to hang out with a woman over 30 who's interested in mothy old books by a long-dead female author?
00:54:03
Speaker
Yeah, I always find it really uncomfortable when that kind of, and I use this word in a celebratory way, but like when the fangirliness of a character is just mocked and bullied, like you said, like it's okay to love stuff.
00:54:22
Speaker
Yeah, and who is she hurting? Can you imagine them ever making this film about mocking someone who's obsessed with the works of a male author? Replace Austen with Dickens and it simply doesn't compute. We are so socially conditioned to mock women's interests. especially if the creator of the thing they are a fan of is also a woman. It really brutally reminds me that while teenage girls are so often the creators of trends in all sorts of areas of life and pop culture, language, literature, music, they are roundly mocked and the object of their obsession is constantly derided unless men decide that they like it too.
00:55:00
Speaker
Anyway, we shall move on. In terms of who maps onto what original character, obviously our two central characters are meant to be Darcy and Elizabeth, while the proprietor is seemingly a Lady Catherine stand-in, determined to ruin Jane's fun at every turn.
00:55:14
Speaker
The main issue I have is that Jane is far too credulous to be our Elizabeth. She is seemingly incapable of sorting reality from fiction. Her first interaction with Mr Nobly should have left her cackling with delight that he so deftly steps into the Darcy role he's being paid to play.
Final Thoughts and Listener Engagement
00:55:28
Speaker
Instead, she is deeply offended that he would tell her that he isn't fond of dancing and the look she gives him is so askance you would think he'd slapped her with the taxidermied peacock head that he is jarringly poking out of the pie in front of him on the table throughout this entire scene.
00:55:42
Speaker
What? There's a taxidermy peacock head sticking out of a pie the whole time. You're right. For someone that loves Pride and Prejudice, even if it's just the 1995 BBC series,
00:55:55
Speaker
That's what Darcy does. Surely you recognise that. Yes. But she's so unable to separate this fiction from real life that she takes it as him being real.
00:56:08
Speaker
Anyway, Kerry Russell is a treasure and she makes Jane incredibly likeable despite this demented script. Likewise, J.J. Field does a fantastic job with the bearer script to work with. His nobly is by turns theatrically grumpy and absurdly horrified at the goings-on at Austin Land.
00:56:24
Speaker
There are a few conversations between Jane and Nobly that mirror those of the OG Darcy and Elizabeth, but Jane jumps from hating him to being a giggly schoolgirl around him within a matter of hours.
00:56:35
Speaker
It's unearned and unrealistic, even for a romance. In terms of the others, Martin is our Wickham, he is two-faced, a fake, and scams Jane into falling for him like Wickham scams Elizabeth.
00:56:48
Speaker
But he's also a groundskeeper. It would have made more sense for his character to be designated Colonel Andrews. Instead, he's like the weird love child of the groundskeeper from Lady Chatterley's Lover and Wickham himself, which is possibly the most cursed sentence I've ever committed to paper and now into audio.
00:57:05
Speaker
There are also the aforementioned oblique references to other Austen tomes, East as Captain Wentworth, and Amelia are sort of Anne Elliot as well as Caroline Bingley, but they're too dumb. They're so dumb. Oh my god. All the other characters in this are so dumb. They're barely sketched out.
00:57:21
Speaker
Jennifer Coolidge is doing her best here, but her iconic dumb blonde finesse only works when the rest of the script is that whip-smart satire. Go and watch her in Best of Show, where she is essentially the same character, and see how much better it works.
00:57:35
Speaker
And that brings me to our favourite pet, Hate. Yet again, we find ourselves bereft of the strong female relationships that underpin the original, and while there are tentative friendships forming within the grounds of this Regency-themed hellscape, there are not the deep and knowing relationships of the book.
00:57:52
Speaker
Elizabeth is too ditzy to become a close and meaningful friend. Even Jane's bestie back home seems distant and leaves us craving some sort of any sort of connection for Jane as she bumbles about.
00:58:02
Speaker
And again, i found myself comparing the movie to me and Mr Darcy. I just cannot stand this trope of the central pair going from full enemies to lovers in a week while in forced proximity to each other on some insane Austin-themed excursion.
00:58:19
Speaker
And then they just go back to their real life in New York and the guy just follows along as they're now very serious long-distance boyfriends. Enemies to lovers takes time and dedication. It has to be earned. And neither of these stories earned it.
00:58:32
Speaker
Yep. Agreed. The lack of female friendships happens so often. And I think what it really shows is that, I mean, again, you can like Pride and Prejudice for the romance. There is nothing wrong with that. But the reason Pride and Prejudice has stayed so strong is there is character growth and there are other relationships.
00:58:52
Speaker
Like, I think that's the reason it's continued to resonate. Yes. Everyone loves Darcy. Okay. I get it. There is so much more going on. Yeah. Now, in terms of the rating, I'm actually stuck between two ratings here. There is so much that is off-putting about this film, but even I, a hardened cynic, found myself smirking at certain points. There are plenty of actually charming scenes and interactions that are unfortunately few and far between, and they do fade a bit during some of the more alarming scenes.
00:59:21
Speaker
scenes in the adaptation. J.J. Field is a standout as the Darcy stand-in. He's just the right amount of broodingly bored gentlemen with enough disdainful eyebrow raises to make even the most hardened 1995 Darcy fan swoon.
00:59:34
Speaker
His efforts deserved a much, much better film. And the ever charming Kerry Russell as Jane deserved a much better script as well. There are outlines of a great film here. And again, it's like it's watching a draft in its early stages of development.
00:59:50
Speaker
being accidentally released to the public. So I'm caught between not actually Austin for the aforementioned charming parts and most seriously displeased for the relentless shaming of Austin fans.
01:00:04
Speaker
If you haven't seen it, just find a supercut of JJ Field being charming on YouTube and leave it at that. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Jane Austen Remixed. We love exploring this wonderful corner of the literary world with you.
01:00:17
Speaker
Please share the podcast with your friends, family, literary fans, and other Janeites. And we would love it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening. This helps us to reach other fans of Pride and Prejudice and build our community. You can also follow us on Instagram at Jane Austen Remixed. And if you have a question or a suggestion for a book, movie, or something you'd like us to review, drop us a line. You can email us at janeaustenremixed at gmail.com.
01:00:44
Speaker
And join us in two weeks when we examine The Cuffing Game by Lila Lee. And now, Stephanie, the most important question of the podcast. Does this Darcy dive into a lake?
01:00:57
Speaker
No. And I can't believe that he doesn't. can't. Given the obsession with Colin Firth and they have like part of the actual wet shirt scene. While we do get JJ Field getting his legs out in the aforementioned tiny tunic, we sadly don't get him dunked in water.
01:01:14
Speaker
And on that note, we'll see you next episode.
01:01:28
Speaker
Thank you.