i must have seen a different film!!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I was looking to find a movie my wife would enjoy. I didn't care what we saw, as long as we saw something.I expected to be bored and to get an extra dose of cheesiness from this film.I laughed a fair amount, which was unexpected. Really, the juxtaposition of Jennifer Coolidge's (Miss Elizabeth Charming) humor with Keri Russell's (Jane Hayes) seriousness really made the show.The setting added to comedy and doubled up on the serious vs. funny contrast. Jane Seymour's (Mrs. Wattlesbrook) serious and very authentically snobby character in the absurd Austenland vacation spot, allowed for great emotional swings to humor.All in all, when you plan to be board and instead find yourself laughing plenty, you have to thank the writers and producers.

This is a Jane Austen film for a generation of kids who have never heard of Jane Austen. The flood of Jane Austen in-jokes I think we have a right to expect from a movie made around this premise never appears. Maybe a trickle, a drop or two. Idiotic pop culture references, yes (Bee Gees lyrics, hand on my heart), but nothing to cause an old-fashioned English major to glance up from his OED, much less deliver a genteel muffled guffaw. There are many farcical moments, if you enjoy farce. The attempts at rom com (and by the way, I would like to apologize to all Gypsies for that abbreviation) are signaled by ghastly pop songs of the kind you hear in the background of Gray's Anatomy, and soulful piano music. I hate soulful piano music. No, I mean really, it makes my skin crawl. Please rom coms, no more.

This is a very campy theme-role romp ! But a word of warning about this movie to true Austen Romantics: this is a loose comedy based on Austen fandom which may offend you ! Austenland is a funny romance focused around an Austen fan , whose visit slowly succumbs to disillusionment , in a contemporised period theme resort . If you are an ardent fan looking for Austen with an emotional modern twist , consider Lost in Austen or The Jane Austen Book Club , instead . But back to Austenland , which is very well cast indeed , and certainly has some amusing scenes , I can but hope they make a period comedy mini-series with all the characters involved , perhaps called The Lady Charming Mysteries (along with her effervescent husband , Colonel Andrews and others). I have some ideas along this line .

I'm not the world's most zealous Janeite - I cannot seem to get my head and heart around liking Mansfield Park...;-) - but I am a Janeite nonetheless, and this was rather wonderful - there, only true Janeites will understand what I mean by that.I do not read fan fiction about Austen characters, I rather re-read the original, there is always something new to discover <3.But I am not a purist, I am open to new adaptations, I believe in freedom of art and taste - and also in freedom of speech, and this is just a sorry little film that does not work on almost all levels...Of course the title attracts a Janeite like a moth to the light, though thank goodness it turned out to be just mildly irritating in its false light and did not cause me mortal damage...The last 15 - 20 minutes do redeem it a bit, but there was so much amiss with the film from the beginning that that was not nearly enough, besides, throughout the film I was saying, 'JJ! How could you!!!' ^^I know cross-casting is done in Austen film adaptations, but at least Colin played a Darcy every time ^^, and JLM as Mr Knightley makes me easily forget the only-glimpsed-at Bertram (which I don't care for too much anyway, as stated above...), and Blake Ritson played two completely different characters (one of them again involving the for me ingnorable MP....forgive me, better-Janeites-than-I...:-))...but my favourite Henry Tilney posing as Darcy and then again not and then this 'Jane' NOT falling for him when he was perfectly in character...that alone, apart from the very flat script and ridiculous end-product, that alone I could not forgive!! -- mostly JJ....^^ (at least he did a good job).So, for this Janeite, this did not work and was a little distasteful to the senses.I am not even sure if I should pose the obvious questions/state the glaring faults: too little introduction to the lead character, much too rushed, much too flat, what WAS Austenland supposed to be, really? Why did they have different names, or were a conglomeration of Austen characters I did not feel any inclination to even try sorting out? The chauffeur? Are we at Downton Abbey now? So much made no sense, too little was properly introduced or set up, this was a hollow endeavor.The only true thing portrayed - again, with too little adequate singularisation or punchlines - was the tedium of the female Regency aristocrats, a fact mentioned in the bonus material of 1995 P&P.No, no, no!!!--- Shall I say it? Yes, I shall: Badly done! (though quoting Jane somehow seems sacrilege to be using even as commentary on this drivel....harsh words, but the truth)