The tale unfolds as a series of monthly meetings; they congregate at Starbucks, in hospital rooms and even on a beach outing that honors one of Austen’s locales. Fun, yes, but the group also deals with betrayal, temptation and dysfunction – all this all packaged up in pure Austin fashion.

Swicord, who wrote the Geisha screenplay, as well as Little Women, makes light of her characters' self-centeredness without ever deliberately making fun of them. She also drops in just enough about Austen's classics for the audience to understand the references without having read the books. Sadly, her pacing is off, as some scenes are longer than they need to and others slide by so fast you miss the effect.

The skilled actresses do the best they can to create memorable characters, but in the end, it's a gimmicky story that isn’t any better or worse than the bland “Becoming Jane,” a fantasy of Austen’s youthful love life. Despite its flaws, Book Club is a heady mix of sexual thrill and female fluff, the kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy entertainment that should satisfy the average bookish moviegoer.