"It is a truth universally acknowledged that we can't all be Lizzy Bennet." - Jenna Guillaume

This is exactly what thirty-something Jane Hayes tries to do when she books a vacation using most of her savings at "the world's most immersive Austen experience:" Austenland. Based off the book of the same name by Shannon Hale, the film was written and directed by Jerusha Hess and co-written and produced by Shannon Hale and Stephenie Meyer. Keri Russel plays the Jane Austen/Mr. Darcy addicted Jane Hayes who spends three weeks in Austenland, in England, in search of romance to cure her failed love life. There, she meets Miss Elizabeth Charming (Jennifer Coolidge), the film and book's comic relief character, Miss Amelia Heartwright (Georgia King), Colonel Andrews (James Callis), also a comic relief character, Mrs. Wattlesbrook (Jane Seymour), who is the "owner" of Austenland, Captain George East (Ricky Wittle), Martin the "stableboy" (Bret McKenzie), and last but most certainly not least, Mr. Henry Nobley (JJ Feild), the kind, quiet, and gentle natural Mr. Darcy of Austenland. Jane first "falls" for Martin the "stableboy" after growing sick of the falseness of Austenland. He deceives her by telling her that he's not an actor, unlike Colonel Andrews, Captain East, and seemingly, Mr. Nobley. However, after being paired to play lovers in Mrs. Wattlesbrook's theatrical, Jane begins to fall for Mr. Nobley who had already fallen very much in love with her since their very first day in Austenland. Each Austenland experience ends with a classic Regency ball, so on Jane's last day at the ball, Mr. Nobley tells her that he fell in love with her. Jane rejects him because she thinks he's just an actor playing his role, then she runs to Martin still believing that he's not an actor. Upon her departure the next morning, she finds out that Martin was an actor all along. In the end, after a brawl between Martin and Mr. Nobley at the airport, Mr. Nobley shows up at Jane's apartment back in America, where he informs her that he is not an actor, that he is actually a history professor (cue swoon moment), and that he truly does love her.

In order to create the Austenland film, writers Jerusha Hess and Shannon Hale switched things up a bit. One of the major parts that Jerusha and Shannon changed was the heroine of the story's past. Jane Hayes, who is given the psuedonym "Jane Erstwhile" while in Austenland, begins as a reluctant, secretive Jane Austen fan in the book rather than an excessive, obsessive, Austen fan. Shannon Hale's original Jane Hayes conceals her love for Pride & Prejudice from those around her, including her family and short-term boyfriends, and even goes as far as hiding her boxed DVD set of Pride & Prejudice from 1995 in her floor plant. Jane only finds herself with a booked vacation in England to Austenland after her great-aunt Carolyn passes away. Carolyn had been the only one who discovered her passion for Mr. Darcy, and gave a portion of her wealth to Jane by giving her a chance to live her dream in Austenland. After a lot of consideration, Jane complies and heads for Austenland with the question of whether or not Jane Austen's regency world will be all that she dreamed it would be.

Austenland's screen Jane Hayes begins much differently. Right from the start, viewers will gape at Jane's extremely obsessive love of all things Jane Austen and Mr. Darcy. In one scene, Jane is seen eating in a restaurant with her friend Molly using a teacup instead of a regular cup from the restaurant. Her apartment, as reviewed by Molly as "really weird," is strewn with every Jane Austen merchandise, book, DVD, Regency dishware, plush Mr. Darcys, pillows, and above her bed are colored letters that spell "Mr. Darcy Was Here." According to the opening song, written specially for the film by Emmy the Great, she even has a picture of Mr. Darcy by her bed and "an oversized T-shirt down to her waist" (presumeably featuring Mr. Darcy). Her obsession goes so far as to effect her love life, similiar to her love life in the book that was just about none of the men she dated ever living up to Mr. Darcy, but her film love life is an even bigger failure. One scene shows Jane sitting on her couch with her boyfriend, watching the scene from Pride & Prejudice where Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) strides across the meadow in his wet shirt, when her boyfriend begins to kiss her neck and Jane pulls away and says, "This is the best part!" Her boyfriend mutters, "Unbelievable," stands up, and walks out the door, but not without giving Jane's cardboard cutout of Mr. Darcy a good punch to the face. (At which point, Jane runs to her Mr. Darcy and kisses his forehead. Talk about obsessed.) Fast forward to the future, Jane is working an office job where an ex-boyfriend pays her an unwelcome visit offering to take her back, prompting Jane to look over at her Austenland brochure pinned to her desk, and she takes off running to the travel agency. Despite her friend Molly's dispproval because she believes that Austenland will "not be as fulfilling" as Jane thinks, Jane books her Austenland getaway in hopes of finding that Mr. Darcy she always dreamed of.

The other two characters that recived minor makeovers for the film were Martin the "stableboy" and Mr. Henry Nobley. In the book, Martin is actually a gardener actor, while in the film, he is a "stableboy" actor that flirts with Jane on her first day. Mr. Nobley, as readers discover, is an actor who plays the "nephew"of Mrs. Wattlesbrook, while his screen version is not an actor and really is the nephew of Mrs. Wattlesbrook. However, neither Martins are any less deluding and neither Henrys are any less handsome and charming.

Though Jane Hayes, Martin, and Mr. Nobley's print and screen versions are significantly different, their differences make the book and movie no less witty, hilarious, and heartwarmingly romantic as they are. Shannon Hales's Austenland is sassy and witty from the start, her dedication being "For Colin Firth; You're a really great guy, but I'm married, so I think we should just be friends" (5). Shannon constantly questions her own heroine's behavior and obsession, and makes audacious comments almost every other sentence. Jerusha Hess's Austenland combines the wit of Shannon Hale and the comedy of the seven main actors, most expecially the absolutely hilarious Jennifer Coolidge, along with the sweet attraction of JJ Feild's Mr. Nobley. Jane Austen's regency world is brought to life perfectly in modern-day through the splendour of Shannon's text descriptions and Jerusha's picturesque landscapes of Austenland, as well as through the amazing talent of Austenland's costume and set designers. Though many viewers have complained that Austenland is cheesy and lacks a sufficient plot, I believe that it is the cheese that makes it so absolutely delightful (though JJ Feild is not hard on the eyes) and the plot, though it may not be Jane Austen level, is smart and fun. Austenites and regular viewers have found immense pleasure while watching Austenland, including my own twelve-year old brother who cackled literally every five seconds, and my mother, who generally takes interest in period dramas but not as obsessive as I, absolutely loved Austenland. So, even if one simply only picked up Pride & Prejudice or any of Jane Austen's novels and merely glanced at the cover and never thought of it again, they would find themselves laughing during (nearly) every Austenland scene and then crying themselves to sleep after watching, wishing that Austenland were an actual real place, becase unfortunately for us, it isn't.