Absolutely the worst movie.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

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

Blistering performances.

For any Jane Austen fan, I think this film provides the ultimate fest. It is witty, fun and charming with lovely scenes, music, cast and great directing. I love the modernisation of the original story -spoiler- (as in the 'It's getting hot in here' scene) as well as the additions, like the gun-firing and saving the lady in distress under the rain scenes. -Spoiler- Plus, making Knobly a real-life character rather than an actor -as was the case in the novel- is well thought of. It raises the level of realism of the whole plot.I have read the book only recently, after watching the film and I think the director did a great job filling in the gaps of the novel. With her aid, the story became perfect which previously I think had many deficiencies in plot. Watch the film and I assure you, you won't regret it ;)

PlotJane Hayes (Keri Russell) is a Jane Austen nut who is in love with Mr. Darcy, the romantic male lead in Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice". She is intimately familiar with this story, for she has read it countless times and has continuously viewed the mini-series with Colin Firth and even has a life sized cardboard cutout of him as Mr. Darcy in her apartment. She believes the next logical step for her is to go to Austenland in England. Once there she becomes familiar with the males actors that she is supposed to form a relationship with, including the actor who is acting a lot like the fictitious Mr. Darcy, but she finds herself sneaking around with the guy who works in the stables. Now she is torn between sticking to the script and being engrossed by her fantasies or should she venture out and break away with this real relationship.Character DevelopmentThe growth that the protagonist goes through is fairly predictable because she is such a Jane Austen fanatic you knew something was about to change, yet the change was more or less symbolic and did anything but dazzle me.ActingKeri Russell does a fine job for the most part. This role didn't really showcase her talents, because I have seen a better performance out of her in the feature length cartoon 'Wonder Woman' (2009). As Jane Hayes she didn't have much to say or a great deal to react to. Most of who she encountered were these broad stroke characters that are less lifelike than the ones out of you would find in the average comic book. They were loud and literally get in her face. Jennifer Coolidge played one of these vacuous characters. I don't know if she is supposed to be funny because she is so hopelessly annoying, but for me she was just plain annoying and oh so boring.OverviewNot as enjoyable as I thought it would be with Keri Russell at the helm. I fault the writing more than anything else. The pace was just too slow and the other actors didn't really do an acceptable job supporting Russell who went along admirably. I thought that there would be more of a connection to Jane Austen's books which makes me question if the creators spent much time reading them in the first place. There was just so much material that could have been used and it is a shame it didn't make its way to the screen. The exchange between the characters played more for cheap laughs than anything else. I was hoping for the types of conversations right out of "Pride & Prejudice" and instead of that there is one guy taking off his shirt and an incredible awful play production that one of the characters wrote. It really felt like amateur hour. Yet there was one nice turn in the end that surprised me and made me think that the writing didn't fall asleep completely at the wheel. But by this time I was so underwhelmed that it almost didn't matter.

I love this movie! It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that I would love it so much because it's full of fluff and silliness ... but there are times when we all need a break from seriousness, and this is simply a delightful movie that fills the bill. I don't care if it's formulaic or not, sometimes I don't want a big wrench thrown into a film to make it interesting. I get tired of suffering with the protagonist sometimes.I love the three real characters -- Mr. Nobley, Jane and Martin. Everyone else seemed to me to be caricatures, though, I have to admit, when Miss Charming was doing an impromptu song-and-dance at the end of the play -- I hadn't laughed that hard in ages.I'm also surprised that JJ Feild doesn't get more credit for his performance. He completely won me over. In fact, I'm a disgustingly huge fan of his now -- I hope he gets the opportunity to do more romantic leading roles now.Of course, Keri Russell and Bret McKenzie play their roles very well.The only character I really didn't care for is Jane Seymour's Mrs. Wattlesbrook. I didn't believe she was a real person; she seemed too one-dimensional for me. I don't know if this was due to bad writing or bad acting. I didn't understand why Mrs. W. had to be so mean to Jane. Jane paid her money to be there, too, after all. This is the only reason I gave this movie a 9 instead of a 10. Fortunately, for me, she wasn't on the screen very much so I wasn't too distracted.If you want to have a delightful time, wallowing around in some escapism, this is the film for you. I just wish there were such a place for real -- I'd be there in a heart-beat. Enjoy!

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 .