“Austenland” follows Jane (Keri Russell), a Jane Austen obsessed American desperate to find her Mr. Darcy. To accomplish this she purchases an Austen themed vacation package at the titular “Austenland” so she can act out her own fantasies about life and love at the turn of the 19th century.

Although “Austenland” has an original plot, it really seems to suffer from conventional romantic comedy tropes. I expected that a movie inspired by Jane Austen would have well written female characters, but “Austenland” misses the mark. Half the time she seems in love with the false admiration in Austenland, and the other half she seems to see herself as above it all. Comedy does not necessarily require characters with depth, but it is hard to care about Jane when all we know about her is that she like Jane Austen characters, is unlucky in love, and looks uncomfortable a lot.

On the side of production, the film looks good. The sets are well done and fit the time period, the costumes are on point (when they need to be), and the music fits well with the theme. Everything is pretty much what you would expect from a period piece, and some of the funnier moments in the film are made better thanks to the attention to detail making Austenland seem authentic.

Despite the writing, there is some good acting in this film. Keri Russell was fine, but none of her acting in the film really stood out. Georgia King had some great scenes as Lady Amelia Hartwright. Her character seems very out of place for the time of Jane Austen, but her less than graceful sneaking around the manor makes for a good contrast to the conventionally stuffy setting. Bret Mckenzie and James Callis also did well as employees of Austenland owner Mrs. Waddlesbrook (Jane Seymour).

“Austenland” is far from perfect, but thanks to some good acting it is worth a watch. The film had some funny moments that sets it apart from the standard romantic comedies seen so often, but it still falls for some predictable cliches that stop it from being a must-see movie.

3/5