It is not difficult to determine the premise that Rosemarie Santini had in mind for her novel Sex and Sensibility, subtitled “The adventures of a Jane Austen addict”: an American version of Bridget Jones, a singleton Jane Austen fan dealing with the modern New York dating scene, heavily influenced by the adventures of Carrie Bradshaw and her friends in the television series SEX AND THE CITY. Not a book for every Janeite, certainly, but a book that, were the premise successfully executed, many would no doubt enjoy immensely.

Unfortunately (and you knew there was an “unfortunately” coming, didn’t you?), the story does not succeed as an Austen homage. We are not really sure if it succeeds as generic chick lit, either. We found it difficult to warm up to the heroine Lizzie (of course) Parsons. It is unclear how she is a “Jane Austen addict,” although she reads Jane Austen’s novels (in a weekend!) when she needs to figure out her tangled love life, drawing conclusions that made little sense to us, either as related to Jane Austen or the plot at hand. One suspects Miss Parsons confuses being a “Jane Austen addict” with being a “Hugh Grant addict.”After all, Lizzie supposedly is a freelance film reviewer. Like Carrie Bradshaw, Lizzie has no visible means of support except occasionally tapping out a short piece for the papers, and yet has a fabulous apartment and designer wardrobe (though always complaining about how she cannot afford such things). Heck, we’ve blogged bigger than that just in a P&P3 Daily News Roundup!

Ms. Santini’s writing style is competent, though we found her cutesy affections such as using the word veree (in italics) instead of “very” (not unlike Bridget Jones’ “v.”) more annoying than endearing. The reliance upon CAPITALS! and EXTRA EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! were, in our opinion, amateurish, and should have been excised in the editing process, along with the heroine’s propensity to describe all of her outfits in excruciating detail, including her underwear. Lizzie could call herself an “Austen Girl” all she liked, but we found no emotional or textual connection with Jane Austen’s work. The references to Austen seemed pasted on.

The premise of this book could have produced a really interesting and fun result, but the story presented needed a great deal of work on the plot and character development to truly fulfill the author’s intentions.

Alert Janeite Cinthia wrote to tell us that P&P3 will be shown at the New Montreal FilmFest, replacing the originally scheduled showing of DOMINO, which was withdrawn for technical reasons. The film will close the festival on Sunday, September 25 (that’s tomorrow!). It is unclear if tickets are still available for the showing. As Cinthia pointed out, presumably this will be the Smoochy Ending Version.

Alert Janeite Jennite also wrote to tell us about an article in the Brisbane Courier-Mail that compares several P&P adaptations (P&P3 opens in Australia on October 20). The author of the piece has clearly been keeping up with the press so far.

One British reviewer has suggested that “only a snob, curmudgeon or someone with necrophilic loyalty to the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle could fail to enjoy Keira Knightley’s performance”, but even snippets of the new film, available on the website, make it clear that the 20-year-old British actor owes a great deal to Ehle. There’s something in her air, in her bearing, and indeed in her timing, that is so like Ehle that the necrophiliacs among us are hopeful this homage will revive the joy of that production, not frustrate it.

And the true fanatics are welcoming the new film with the verve of Mrs Bennet embracing her new son-in-law Mr Wikham – no matter his flaws, it’s always good to see him.

Huzzah for the Naughty Necrophiliac Nerds™!

Michael Sraglow, writing in the Baltimore Sun, talks about the many book adaptations being presented this autumn, including PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and shows that he knows his P&P adaptations.

Still, the content of live-action films will get the most sizable upgrade — often thanks to the novels or plays that preceded their scripts.

Movie critics like to sneer “Masterpiece Theatre!” as a putdown whenever a filmmaker gets a costume picture on the screen. It’s become a hilariously wrongheaded piece of hipster snobbery. For one thing, no adaptation of Austen has matched Masterpiece Theatre’s 1980 Pride and Prejudice, written by Fay Weldon — certainly not the later A&E bodice-buster starring Colin Firth.

Don’t know if we agree with his opinion but the “hilariously wrongheaded piece of hipster snobbery” part makes us want to cheer.