I hate Jane Austen. Yeah, I said it. It may shock some of you to hear this, but early 19th century romantic British literature just isn't my cup of tea. (Rimshot!) I don't think Jane Austen's a bad writer or that there's anything inherently wrong with her literary genre. It's just that, within about five seconds of cracking an Austen tome, I become acutely aware that I'm not the target demographic she had in mind when setting her giant, frilly quill-pen to parchment way back when.

I can't really fault her for that. After all, it would've shown an eerily prescient level of foresight on Austen's part if she'd been at her desk two centuries ago working feverishly to ensure that her work would appeal to an average 21^st-century male who majored in English, struggled through, not one, but two interminable semesters of Brit Lit Studies and would one day review a film tangentially related to her work. I sure would've appreciated it, though. Alas, 'twas not to be, and trudging my way through Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility all those years ago was an experience akin to the teeth-drilling scene from Marathon Man.

But my pain is your gain, because even if you're not part of Ms. Austen's intended readership, my compulsory exposure to her work gave me the necessary knowledge to give you a crash course, a Jane Austen 101, if you will. In short, Austen's work is Twilight before there was Twilight, minus the sparkling vampires and shirt-averse werewolves. If you take away all of the horseback riding, elegant galas and powdered wigs, (and, OK, the razor-sharp wit and irony, too), it's page upon page of the classic female wish-fulfillment fantasy of meeting a tall, dark and handsome stranger. It's no wonder Austen's work still endures 200 years later.

Austenland is Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre writer Jerusha Hess's directorial debut, produced, appropriately enough, by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and based on the novel by Shannon Hale. Jane Hayes, (Keri Russell), is a single, 30-something New Yorker who's totally obsessed with Jane Austen.  Specifically, she's creepily obsessed with the 1995 BBC miniseries adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Her home is festooned with all manner of memorabilia, from dollhouses to a life-size cardboard cutout of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Just when you think the film will cut to Jane lurking in the bushes outside of Colin Firth's house for the next two hours, she takes a vacation to Austenland. Here at this Austen-themed British resort, Jane hopes to find a flesh and blood Mr. Darcy to replace her cardboard one.

True to form, Russell gives an endearing performance as Jane who, despite her somewhat unsettling fixations, comes across charming and sweet. Hilarious supporting roles from Jane Seymour and Jennifer Coolidge, coupled with Hess' brilliant direction and sidesplitting writing make Austenland an uproariously tongue-in-cheek movie that expertly rides the fine line between mercilessly satirizing and paying respectful homage to the works that inspired it.

AUSTENLAND, opens Friday, Sept. 20, 606 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, $4.50-$9, 253.593.4474