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Director Robin Swicord adapts Karen Joy Fowler’s bestselling novel into a smart romantic comedy that takes helpful cues from the literary master of love, Jane Austen. When so many rom-coms these days are about bickering shallow women or females who have problems saying on their feet (you know pratfall after pratfall), it’s quite refreshing to see a funny love story based around characters reading. Even better the comedy comes from the characters and their natures.

Jocelyn (Maria Bello, THE COOLER) is a successful single woman, who is content with being unchained from a man. Her best friend Sylvia Avila (Amy Brenneman, TV’s JUDGING AMY) is going through a tough divorce, after her husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits, TV’s L.A. LAW) springs on her that he has found another woman. Their daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace, TV’s LOST) is an adventurous lesbian who is impatient and rash with love. Bernadette (Kathy Baker, TV’s PICKET FENCES) is Jocelyn’s older free-spirited friend, who has been blissfully married several times. One night at the movies Bernadette meets the unhappily married Prudie Drummond (Emily Blunt, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA), whose snooty personality seems in complete conflict with her jocky husband Dean (Marc Blucas, TV’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER). Bernadette invites Prudie to join their Jane Austen book club, where each member leads the discussion on each of Austen’s novels. To fill out the group, Jocelyn ropes in sci-fi loving tech millionaire Grigg Harris (Hugh Dancy, BLACK HAWK DOWN) to the club as a possible romantic interest for Sylvia even when its clear that Grigg has eyes for her.

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