Love and Jane Review: Austen Becomes An Imaginary Friend

Love and Jane turns Jane Austen into the imaginary friend that every romance fan wants and needs. She’s the dream fairy godmother.

David Weaver deserves praise for creating this clever premise. It is fun. Additionally, it’s enjoyable to watch Lilly transform from a somewhat cartoon character to a more mature, fully functioning adult.

Any aspiring writer may feel a bit of encouragement watching Lilly strive for her dreams. She pushes herself and all her novelist wishes come true.

Love and Jane feels very optimistic and fantastical.

And often that tone works within the Hallmark movie world. You’re not watching these types of movies for sharp commentary on life. You watch them as an escape.

However, there is such a thing as going a bit too far into the realm of the unbelievable.

All the Loveuary Jane Austen movies exist as their own thing. Therefore, it’s almost unfair to compare them because of their different writers, directors, and cast, but naturally, some comparisons will happen.

While Paiging Mr. Darcy strikes a balanced tone of realistic and fantastical, Love and Jane leans a bit too much into the land of the absurd.

This isn’t even because of the plot line that makes Jane Austen an imaginary friend. That’s the most intriguing and entertaining element. It’s because Lilly feels like someone’s wacky idea of how Austen fans act.

Someone imagines them as people who refuse to live in the modern world. Obviously, that’s the point of the film. However, it doesn’t quite work.

Let’s start with her initial interaction with Trevor. She makes it seem like such a combative and disagreeable first meeting. Austen fans know a truly bad first encounter.

And Trevor and Lilly’s bookstore exchange barely registers as a first meeting. He tells her the book has been ordered online and now he’s a demon, according to Lilly. Some level of delusion exists within her consciousness.

Clearly, Lilly needs to get back in touch with the world outside of Austen’s books.

Then Lilly apparently doesn’t enjoy technology that much but uses a form of Alexa or Siri…yeah, some contradictions happen here. Love and Jane focuses more on Lily’s development than her romance.

We can agree that deserves applause. As they say, you can’t love someone else if you are not happy with yourself.

Nevertheless, the romance suffers because it doesn’t quite get the necessary development to make it appealing. It feels like the film tells us they’re perfect for each other without actually working to prove it.

Some more scenes and interactions with Lilly and Trevor could help viewers appreciate and yearn for them more as a potential couple.

Love and Jane aims to create this silly and lighthearted experience. It makes a respectable attempt because some aspects work well (such as the Jane Austen plot, Lilly’s writing aspirations, and Lilly as a matchmaker) but tweaks to Lilly’s personality, the romance exploration, and a few other things could elevate this movie.

Stray Thoughts

I appreciate the way the film references multiple Austen works, but it seems to rely a bit too much on Pride and Prejudice (at least at the start). It could easily lean more into the Emma parts.
Speaking of Emma, I enjoy Lilly most when she’s playing matchmaker.
Lilly feels like a caricature Jane fan, so I love that the film shows a wide range of Austen fans at the Jane Austen Club. Many of them demonstrate effectively that Austen fans are diverse.
The Jane and Lily watching a version of Pride and Prejudice scene is the best moment in the movie.

What did you think of Love and Jane? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Love and Jane is available to watch on Peacock for a limited time.

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