Blu-ray Review: The Jane Austen Book Club

THE MOVIE: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

I am sure that this will come as a shock to my wife but I really enjoyed this movie. This is a really original and creative movie with excellent writing and acting on the art of the entire cast.

Essentially, the movie revolves around 5 women and one male member of a book club that gathers on a monthly basis to discuss one of 6 Jane Austen novels. Four of the women are good friends with the other two members picked almost at random to join the club. What is really creative about this film is how the writers have merged the central themes of the 6 selected books into the lives of the each of the book club members, for good and for bad. Yes, this is a romantic comedy and a chick flick but it is a damn fine one and well worth a look. Check it out with your wife or significant other. You will be glad you did. Recommended.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

Encoded with AVC and presented with an aspect ratio of 1:78:1, this is a fine looking encode. With the one exception noted below, this film boasts excellent and natural looking colors. Detail and shadow detail is excellent as well. Black level is deep and gives the film a nice three dimensional look. My only quibble with the look of the film involves the flesh tones which are way too orange looking. This is quite surprising given the excellent colors in the rest of the film. With the exception of the skin tones, this is a very natural looking presentation with excellent detail and depth. This is another in a string of recent excellent looking encodes from the folks at Sony. Great stuff.

THE AUDIO: 4 3/4 stars out of 5

As much as I enjoyed the video on this release, I enjoyed the audio presentation even better. Presented in Dolby True HD, this is an excellent sounding release. As one would expect from a romantic comedy, the sound field is rather front heavy. Certain scenes aside, this is not a release which boasts an immersive sound field. Whey then the high score? The overall sound quality of the film. The sound here is uniformly excellent. The overall sound is extremely smooth, rich and natural sounding. Dialogue is wonderfully recorded with a rich sound which is perfectly placed in the sound mix. With many characters talking on the scene at one time, each of them is properly localized in the sound field making it easy to follow each one. The audio encode on this release will not floor you with pyrotechnics but should floor you with a remarkably rich, natural and smooth sound which was a real joy to experience. Very well done.

IN CONCLUSION

I know I will take some hits for this review from the guys, but this is a wonderful movie and well worth your time. Recommended.

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