Austenland, brought to you by the writers of Napoleon Dynamite, is about a Jane Austen-obsessed, 30-something-year-old woman who decides to sink all her savings into a “Jane Austen experience” in England. This film had the potential to break out of the traditional rom-com shell and actually say something insightful about fandom, obsession, and longing; however, it fails on all counts. The character growth is abrupt, rather than nuanced. Instead of a new, interesting take on love, we get something worn down and tiresome. Overall, the film says nothing new or interesting about fandom and obsession.
The film also manages to be boring; it elicits a few chuckles and coughs here and there, but most of the humour falls short of expectations. The actors are not given much to do, and protagonist Jane Hayes (Keri Russell) is barely given anything good to work with. All this is not to say that Austenland is necessarily a bad film, but that it is simply very mediocre, especially given the potential of the premise. The heroine’s arc mirrors the arc of a Jane Austen protagonist, however, the execution of her role falls flat, and her journey feels hollow, uninspired, and generic.
