Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love & Jane’ on The Hallmark Channel, Where The Ghost Of Jane Austen Helps A Woman Get Her Life Together

The Hallmark Channel’s Jane Austen-inspired month of romance movies continues with Love & Jane, a flat, predictable romance starring Alison Sweeney and Benjamin Ayres. In the film, a woman struggling to find success in work and love is haunted by a vision of Jane Austen, who guides her to happiness. There was potential here for something funny or even satirical, but alas, there’s only so much that the ghost of Jane Austen can punch up in the script.

LOVE & JANE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Lilly (Alison Sweeney), a woman who runs a Jane Austen book club, is walking to her weekly meeting when she realizes she’s left her copy of Pride and Prejudice at home. She turns around and heads to a local bookstore to buy a copy.

The Gist: Lilly is a writer and a Jane Austen obsessive who lives in Boston. She often laments that she’ll never be as good a writer as Austen, and she wistfully dreams of a life full of romance, witty banter, and free of modern conveniences like the internet. She seems to simultaneously want to be an amalgam of Austen and all of her female protagonists.

After Lilly realizes she’s forgotten her copy of Pride, she runs into the local bookstore, Scribblers, and as she’s about to grab the last copy, it’s snatched from her by the store’s new owner, Trevor (Benjamin Ayres), who received an online order for the book and has to ship that very copy. Lilly is outraged that an online customer has basically cut her in line and gives Trevor a piece of her mind, because remember, she hates the internet and what it represents. She leaves the store without the book, furious. After the book club is over, she gets some disappointing news that the beloved pub where they host the club is being sold, pushed out my the tech bros who are moving in to the neighborhood. And then right after that, during dinner with her boyfriend Martin, he proposes, but it’s terribly unromantic, and he essentially promises her a life of not having to work. This feels stifling and presumptive if him, and she turns him down.

That night, Lilly has a dream where a vision of Jane Austen comes to her. She feels like she’s going crazy, but she heads into work at her ad agency and tries to shake off the empire-waisted apparition. At work, she meets a new ad client, the man who owns a huge online empire called Faves, like a social media network where people share their favorite things and then the algorithm tries to sell them more of those things. This client is none other than Trevor, and Lilly realizes he only bought her beloved Scribblers as part of his attempt to build up his business portfolio. But Trevor’s not actually a bad dude: he lets Lilly’s book club meet at Scribblers since they need a place to go, he wants books to bring people together, that’s only ever been his mission!

In case you haven’t noticed the trend here, Lilly feels overwhelmed by how to handle everything that’s being thrown at her: her relationship problems, her struggle to align her work with her internet-hating values, her frustration with Trevor and everything she thinks he stands for. And so, Jane Austen continues to haunt Lilly in her dreams, coaching her and showing her how to handle these situations like Elizabeth Bennet or Elinor Dashwood might.

Lilly continues to be haunted by the ghost of Jane, who attempts to advise her on dealing with Trevor and how to finish the book she’s been writing, popping up in her office and at home to tell her what she should and shouldn’t be doing. While she’s often spot on with the writing advice, her suggestions for how Lilly should find a man who raises cattle for security feel a bit dated. (Alternately, Lilly teaches Jane about modern life and shows her the film versions of her books so she understands just how legendary she is.) But you know what? It’s not Jane or her books that offer Lilly the real life lesson she’s been after, the real teacher is her own heart, which she finally learns to listen to and she gives in to Trevor’s charm… but you could have seen that coming from chapter one.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Lilly and Trevor’s relationship is very You’ve Got Mail, but her being visited by the ghost of a literary figure also feels akin to Midnight in Paris. Unfortunately, this movie is nowhere near as good or memorable as either of those.

Our Take: Sometimes a movie pulls out all the sitcom-y, far-fetched plot devices and makes characters do silly, unrealistic things for the sake of the premise (I’m looking at you, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days!) It only works when an actor is able to justify their temporary insanity and redeem themselves somehow by the end. (Say what you will about Kate Hudson’s acting, but she somehow managed to justify Andie’s batshit behavior toward Matthew McConaughey’s Benjamin and still be lovable, I stand by it!)

Love & Jane pieces together a bunch of implausible devices (a woman so obsessed with an author from a bygone era she lives much of her life lamenting modern conveniences, the appearance of ghost-mentor who’s Just Here To Help, the loathsome romantic lead who’s the opposite of everything the protagonist stands for), but there’s not much to elevate these elements above their silliness. Ayres is likeable, which is why it’s odd that Lilly (and Jane) constantly talk about how “disagreeable” he is, despite him making lots of effort to accommodate Lilly and her passion for books right in front of her. The moments between Lilly and Jane (played by Kendra Anderson) are not the problem, because their dynamic is actually funny at times and I actually wish Jane has a little more to do in the way of comic relief; what brings the movie down is Lilly’s pervasive obsession with days of yore and quoting literature that quickly goes from quirky to insufferable. It just goes to show that it’s all in the writing. Despite the fact that the movie is essentially following an Austen-inspired romance template, the details, the dialogue, and the characters are a pale imitation of her work.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Remember how I mentioned that Jane advised Lilly to find a man who raises cattle? It was a running gag, with Lilly often reminding Jane that in 2024, that’s not the measure of a suitable husbands anymore. After Trevor professes his love for Lilly, he asks her to weigh in on an investment opportunity he’s considering: eco-friendly livestock.”Wait a second, are you thinking about buying a herd of cattle?” she asks him, laughing. “You’re clearly the man I was meant to be with.” And then he makes her stop talking and quoting Jane Austen for five seconds by kissing her.

Performance Worth Watching: This isn’t the first Hallmark movie I’ve watched that stars Benjamin Ayres as a kind of rugged, quirky but ultimately charming lead. A a romantic lead, he’s very good at witholding his emotions at the start and opening up to reveal his lovable layers underneath.

Memorable Dialogue: Lilly is such a devotee to Jane Austen that I kept a running tally of all the references or adoring things she said about the writer, including, “Jane is for everyone!” “[Jane] has the perfect quote for every occasion!”, and “You are so Mr. Collins right now!” and that’s just in the first ten minutes of the movie.

Our Call: SKIP IT. While the movie has its moments and a few laughs, the non-stop Austen quotes and references should have been reined in a little, and Sweeney is saddled with playing an annoying caricature rather than a believable character.