Unfortunately, Hess and company weren't nearly as interested in Austen as they were in a thousand other boring romantic comedies.

| Feb 25, 2021

This hallucinatory comedy boasts a fantastic level of originality.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 3, 2020

If Austenland is supposed to criticize obsessive fandom, the ending makes no sense. If it isn't, the rest of the film makes no sense. And yet, the light, airy, innocent nature of it all is somehow pleasing enough

| Original Score: B- | Aug 27, 2019

Instead of exploring some of the subtext of what's really going on here though, Hess rides the film into broad romantic territory.

| Aug 22, 2019

Hess' bread and butter shines through; the silly, elastic facial expressions, the shameless pratfalls, witty exchanges, and Coolidge's golden one-liners kept me laughing all the way through and saved the experience from being a regrettable one.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 12, 2019

This is unarguably literature-lite, and more likely to comes across as a patronising approach to the life's work of one of Britain's finest exports than a well-intentioned send-up.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 5, 2019

This is a cheesy over-the-top romantic comedy that is absolutely and totally making fun of cheesy over-the-top romantic comedies.

| Mar 2, 2019

The film is light and fun and amusing. In fact, my biggest criticism is that the movie doesn't take the story seriously enough.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 21, 2018

The acting is terrible, the costumes are hideous and the best jokes are farts, with a pause for sniggers. I found myself laughing out of sheer terror at one point.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 6, 2018

With all the makings of a cult, this hit-and-miss hoot is as weird - and certainly much sillier than you'd expect - of a comedy produced by Stefanie 'Twilight' Meyer but directed/penned by the co-writer of Napoleon Dynamite.

| Sep 6, 2017

It's probably unfair to compare the film and its source inspiration too heavily but this plays out like a weak modern-day Austen novel.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 8, 2016

Although...mostly a nice, light, little trifle, it's ultimately half a souffl at best-one that never quite rises to the occasion.

| Jun 27, 2014

an interesting diversion that holds a lot of promise at first, is pleasant but generally underdelivers throughout, and then almost redeems itself with a last-minute twist that almost makes sense considering the movie's core weakness.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 21, 2014

Austenland is a pretty film to look at, but underneath its look, there's just not much there.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 10, 2014

Rom-com fanatics and Austen aficionados may find gems in Austenland, but others will see this as a film with little sense or sensibility.

| Feb 7, 2014

Based on the 2007 book by Shannon Hale, all the ingredients for a deft, sly, sleight-of-hand comedy are there. But the film is all over the place. The tone is off, the timing is off, the cutting is off. And it's just not funny.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 19, 2013

This is just a desperate attempt to hook in gullible fans hoping for a little Darcy-inflected romantic swooning.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 17, 2013

Austenland is bound to become the guilty pleasure of the spring.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 17, 2013

Not only is it silly and twee, but it tries to present a "realistic" look at love that's just as corny as the romance it's making fun of.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 4, 2013

It's generally lacking the wit and charm that Austen herself likely would have brought to the same material.

| Sep 30, 2013