Jerusha
Hess comes into her own.
When it comes to quirky filmmaking, no one does it better than Wes Anderson.
But that doesn’t seem to stop Jared and Jerusha Hess from trying. Try as they
might, they’ve given us plenty of laughs along the way with Jared typically in
the director’s chair. From their huge splash at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival
with
Napoleon Dynamite, through their Hollywood debut
Nacho Libre,
to their last minor (but still hilarious) outing,
Gentlemen Broncos, they
may have only made three films prior to this year’s festival offering,
Austenland, but they stayed true to their unique vision. With
Austenland, Jerusha adapted the novel by Shannon Hale (who co-writes), and
seems to have bigger fish to fry — namely, girls of the rom-com persuasion.
Jane (Keri Russell) works day to day at a job she hates where she’s harassed
by an unrequited horndog, and keeps a low profile on the dating scene thanks to
her obsession with all things Jane Austen. One day she finally decides she’s
had enough and takes off on a vacation to Austenland, a Jane Austen-themed
resort, against her best friend’s wishes. Here she’s greeted by the owner of
Austenland, the chastising Mrs. Wattlesbrook (Jane Seymour), after meeting
fellow vacationer Elizabeth (Jennifer Coolidge) at the airport.
Everyone who visits Austenland is given a Jane Austen-style backstory.
Seeing how Jane opted for the cheaper vacation plans, she is relegated to being
an orphan of misfortune and sent off to the servants’ wing while Elizabeth is
deemed Miss Charming. Part of the package includes a courtship with their very
own Mister Darcy. These come in the forms of the scowly, downtalking Mr. Henry
Nobley (JJ Field), the possibly gay Colonel Andrews (James Callis), and the
swashbuckling Captain George East (Ricky Whittle). Everything winds up playing
tried and true to Pride and Prejudice with Jane eventually having to decide
between Henry and Martin (Bret McKenzie), who oversees the lands.
If you think you know how this will end, you’re right. There’s no real
surprises here, except for how abruptly Jane makes her final decision. The main
problem is that she may wind up with who she really should, but Russell has
absolutely no chemistry with him. The one she does click with is who we’re
expected to root against which shows how much charisma McKenzie has. While on
Flight
of the Conchords he may have played a far more insecure character, here he
steals the whole movie no matter how much Coolidge tries. Director Hess has
absolutely no idea how to rein her in and just lets her do her thing. Coolidge
plays the ugly American with complete glee, spouting phrases like, “Tallyho,”
“God save the Queen,” “The British are coming, the British are coming,” and
even makes her introduction at the airport thanking Jane for being American
because she “can’t understand what the natives are saying.”
There’s lots of buzz surrounding
Austenland and the women in the
audience sure seemed to be eating it up. I even overheard a couple while
waiting in line for something else at a public screening in Salt Lake who
described it as “awesome.” Not quite. While it’s not the best rom-com you’re
likely to see anytime soon, it’s certainly not something any guy will hate
himself for getting dragged to.
In the end, it does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to give the
girls some trials and tribulations of unlucky-in-love Jane while setting their
hearts aflutter with the unsurprising outcome. There’s only one scene where
Jerusha gets down to her quirky business, and it’s the funniest scene in the
whole movie. Let’s just say it involves the enactment of a horrible play
written by Wattlesbrook. So go ahead and see it when it’s released, at least
you won’t hate yourself the next morning.
Photos courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
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