Prudie is encumbered with her inattentive husband Dean, and free-spirited, marijuana-smoking, aging hippie mother Mama Sky, who dies in a car accident.

Prudie also finds herself desperately trying to resist her feelings for seductive student Trey, meanwhile accusing Dean of coming on to her high-school acquaintance at Mama Sky's funeral.

Daniel wants to join the book club after reading Persuasion with Allegra at the hospital after suffering a concussion from an indoor climbing accident.

Jocelyn finally reads the books Grigg gave to her and is surprised to find that she loves them, cannot sleep, and finishes them in a single night.

Grigg and Jocelyn are together, Sylvia and Daniel have reconciled, Prudie, who is pregnant, attends with Dean (who appears more enthusiastic about Austen), and Bernadette introduces her (seventh) husband.

Bernadette represents Mrs. Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice, Sylvia is patterned after Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, Jocelyn reflects the title character in Emma, Prudie is similar to Anne Elliot in Persuasion, Allegra is most like Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, and Grigg represents all of Austen's misunderstood male characters.

The soundtrack includes "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini, "You're All I Have" by Snow Patrol, "Save Me" by Aimee Mann, "So Sorry" by Feist, and "Getting Some Fun Out of Life" by Madeleine Peyroux.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Though at times formulaic and sentimental, Jane Austen Book Club succeeds on the strength of its likable ensemble cast.

[4] Stephen Holden of The New York Times said the film "is such a well-acted, literate adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 best seller that your impulse is to forgive it for being the formulaic, feel-good chick flick that it is ... Like the other movies and television projects in a Jane Austen boom that continues to gather momentum, it is an entertaining, carefully assembled piece of clockwork that imposes order on ever more complicated gender warfare.

Still, a lively ensemble cast works hard ... Swicord's gift as a screenwriter is that her catch-up summaries avoid sounding pedantic or like CliffsNotes.

"[8] Dennis Harvey of Variety stated, "While there are occasional forced notes ... Swicord's direction proves as accomplished as her script at handling an incident-packed story with ease, capturing humor and drama sans cheap laughs or tearjerking.

You can hardly fault a movie that fashions itself around a consummate writer whose keen sense of humor and gift for fully realized characters have resulted in countless screen adaptations.