Austenland: Intolerable, and Not Handsome Enough to Tempt Anyone

The screenplay for director Jerusha Hess’ feature debut Austenland was adapted by the filmmaker and writer Shannon Hale from the latter’s 2007 comic novel of the same name. This unfortunate fact precludes Hale from disavowing the resulting film as a perversion of her original vision, which any reasonable author would doubtlessly prefer to do after witnessing such a tedious and dim-witted adaptation.  The premise has at least a dollop of promise: to satiate her obsession with Jane Austen’s novels, emotionally arrested thirtysomething Jane (Keri Russell) spends her life savings on a vacation to the titular British theme park. Overseen by the high-handed Mrs. Wattlesbrook (Jane Seymour), Austenland’s opulent grounds provide a setting for eager Janeites to engage in Regency era role-play, complete with a climactic (fake) marriage proposal.

It’s dispiritingly obvious within ten minutes what path Austenland will follow: Jane will encounter a collection of wacky personalities, blunder into swooning romance, suffer through some disillusionments, and eventually emerge into the Real World a little wiser. The film’s drably formulaic quality might be forgivable, were its screenplay not so leadenly unfunny.  It doesn’t help that the bulk of the supposed comic relief revolves around Elizabeth (Jennifer Coolidge), a walking caricature of the oblivious, ravenous Ugly American who affects a wince-worthy English accent. In its less irksome moments, Austenland exploits the artifice of theme parks and literary fandom in mildly clever and amusing ways. However, such sparks of drollness are far too rare to distract from the film’s lame jokes, lackluster story, and cartoonish characters, which include a startlingly retrograde gay stereotype. In short, Austenland is unpalatable, processed cinematic goo dressed up as a charming romantic comedy. Ms. Austen and her legions of modern aficionados deserve better.