Austenland (2013)

Next up in the (slightly delayed) ‘Recommended By‘ blogathon is Kim from Tranquil Dreams with her review of Austenland. Take it away Kim….

Talk about coming back in style! A huge welcome back to Tyson for returning to the blogosphere because I know a ton of us bloggers missed him. Not only did he return back to the blogosphere, he came back with a blogathon. Thats pretty impressive! An enormous thank you to him for putting this together!

There’s been a ton of movies on my to see list, especially since I do have a recommendations section in my blog also and I take out a month or two every year to focus on those but the first movie that popped in my head when I saw this blogathon was Ruth at Flixchatter’s awesome review on.Being a huge fan of the world of Jane Austen and more specifically of the acting abilities of Keri Russell, I was on board with this movie before I even saw it, however, I never seemed to find the time to watch it, until now…

Director: Jerusha Hess

Cast: Keri Russell, JJ Feild, Bret McKenzie, Jennifer Coolidge, Georgia King, Jane Seymour, James Callis

Jane (Keri Russell) is a girl who has been unlucky in love mostly because she is obsessed with with the world of Jane Austen and the gentlemen presented in the form of Mr. Darcy in the Regency era. She finally decides to go to the Austen experience in Austenland to hopefully experience the love and the world she’s always wanted to be fully immersed in. Using all of her savings, she arrives and falls into a fantasy world where she hopes to meet the perfect gentlemen.

I’d have to agree that Ruth’s review for this was spot on. Austenland is such a fun movie to watch. It was so entertaining that I actually watched it a second time right away. Romantic comedies are all a bit predictable these days but when you push that aside, Austenland has a very fun premise and reflects to many people who are fascinated by the world that Austen has created where men are really quite gentlemanly and if anything, life and love is more simplistic and straightforward. They actually have a line in the movie somewhere.

Other than a catchy premise in a successful rom-com, it needs to have a great cast. In this case, Austenland has a good mix. I’ve been a fan of Keri Russell since her days in TV series Felicity, which was really more of a drama. I’m not exactly sure I’ve seen her do a lot of comedy but its obvious that after I saw her in this, she is very much capable of it. She had some witty lines and some laugh out loud moments. However, talking about hilarious moments, it has to always go to Jennifer Coolidge. As silly and as dumb as she portrays herself in movies, Jennifer Coolidge knows how to make an audience laugh with the most random lines and make it sound like she means every word of it. That, to me, is getting into a role properly.  Her fake, over the top British accent accounts for lots of laughter and then her rawdy personality seals the deal on a very great role.

Other than the ladies, we always have to talk about the guys. How can a rom-com not include some form of guys to either be the eye candy or spark the chemistry with the female lead, Jane. Here, we have two men. Both, I’m rather unfamiliar with. JJ Feild, playing Henry looks a whole lot like Tom Hiddleston (or maybe I’m just crazy) and although I haven’t really seen him in much, he is extremely charming to watch and some of his expressions and lines are sarcastic and funny. He was literally the Mr. Darcy of the experience. While his opposite is the equally handsome but more rugged sort of guy called Martin, played by Bret McKenzie who seems to be more of a singer than an actor. However, he creates a balance for the characters a little and is a breath of fresh air across the very weird bunch gathered in this fantasy world, bringing Jane back to reality for a little.

The definite plus for Austenland comes from the chemistry between the cast. It comes from the humor and the expressions.  Every scene is backed with some nice, fun music. As predictable as romantic comedies are, Austenland is a breath of fresh air, with comedy put in at the most random of places and its just so entertaining to watch.  Its definitely a feel-good movie and one I’d gladly revisit over and over again.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on October 9, 2014

https://headinavice.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/austenland-2013/