Jennifer Coolidge is a brilliant comedic actress but I thought she was "bloody brilliant" as miss charming. I laughed more at her lines which were delivered fabulously.
shareThe best part of the entire movie was Jennifer Coolidge. She is a scene stealer in pretty much everything she does. She's on the CBS show "Two Broke Girls" right now and is great.
shareHer character was basically another version of the "ugly American." I found a lot of her part really annoying, but I suppose that's what the director and screenwriter were going for.
shareShe was the only good thing about the movie.
shareReally? I really liked Jennifer Coolidge in Best in Show, but I thought her role in this was horrible. I'm not saying it shouldn't have existed, but they could have pulled back the stupid a bit. An ugly American is one thing, but this was totally painful. It was like the idea of a Jane Austen related movie was too-high brow and needed to be brought down a few I.Q. points more than the ridiculous premise had already managed.
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I was a little worried about her role in this, but fortunately it didn't ruin the film for me. I was considering abandoning it after the bit about the chamber pots, because I'm sick of the obligatory gross-out humor that's so popular these days (since Bridesmaids the industry seem to think it belongs in all "women's comedies"). Then again, her response to Captain East's swashbuckling story killed me, and she was born to deliver such lines.
I completely agree that they could and should have dialed her character down by about 20%, but she had her moments.
I hadn't bothered to look into Jerusha Hess, but with Napoleon Dynamite as her breakout writing credit, we're lucky the Ugly American didn't get any uglier than it was.
I love her. When she went "that was Friggen awesome" I laughed so much.
shareI thought her character was really awesome and funny. I bascially watched it because she intruiged me by the trailer. I ended up liking the movie overall, but she is definitely the best part.
Go Mischa/Marissa(2003-2006)
Wisdom is freedom
She really was a highlight! I've read the book and Miss Charming was brought to life so much better by Jennifer. She wasn't nearly as entertaining in the book.
shareShe had so many funny lines. When she said that her inkwell was empty and the guy asked her what she was going to write, I laughed so hard when she was like, "Hm, maybe the Declaration of Independence?"
shareYes, she is hilarious. I loved the part where she teaches Keri to say 'bloody americans' and does the growl after it.
sharei'm a big fan of jane austen and thought this movie was awful except for jennifer coolidge, who plays ditzes so well. she definitely kept me watching even though most of the movie was dull, dull, dull. the idea of an "Austenland" is asinine so even the goofy ending where miss charming buys the place and turns it into the amusement park it should be was funny. most fans of jane austen couldn't give a rat's ass about such a stupid premise as "Austenland."
i got the kindle e-book but stopped after a few pages because it seems to be more about adolescent fantasies about mr. knightley, which has nothing to do with anything austen wrote and she'd probably sue the author if she were alive. (i also disliked the slam on page 1 against Northanger Abbey since it's my favorite, critics be damned).
P.S. Ms. Coolidge owns a grand old mansion around the corner from my hovel and we've chatted several times when she's around. The first time she was with friends, including Michael Hitchcock and another actor from the Christopher Guest mockumentaries (I'll remember as soon as I fall asleep...), and I felt like a gushing, annoying fan babbling how much I love those flicks. We usually see each other while I'm walking my dogs and she's an animal lover, too, regularly rescuing strays from appearances. When she's not in residence I've seen people taking care of different dogs and it always seems there's a new one.
"I write Stargate fan fiction so I think I know what I'm talking about..."