What's wrong with a chick flick?

What is it about the chick flick that brings out the brute in male critics? The Jane Austen Book Club has certainly had a good kicking. The Telegraph's Tim Robey called it cinematic "hemlock"; The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw "icky, brain-dead, ya-ya-sisterhood sludge". Hey, boys, nobody died. I don't mind your lads' films where things get blown up - why can't you allow us our equivalent guilty pleasure?

The Jane Austen Book Club is a classic woman's picture - an intricate meshing of romance and wry social observation, in which the protagonists get to wear some great outfits. In the film (an adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 bestseller), a group of modern-day Californians get together to read and discuss Austen's novels - in the process discovering important truths about their own lives.

Jane-ites will lap up all the intertextual references (Was Charlotte Lucas gay? Is Emma Woodhouse a bitch?) but you can also enjoy it without having read any of the novels. We get a proper ensemble cast of women of different ages, and people discuss complex ideas - economics, politics, romance, class - at length.

Romantic comedies are important - the best ones break down taboos. The premise is always the same: two people are kept apart by a major obstacle (money, race, sexuality) but by the end you're longing for them to get together. In The Jane Austen Book Club, the slow-burn romance between Maria Bello's older woman and Hugh Dancy's computer nerd is particularly touching. Yes of course it's a middle-aged fantasy. That's why they're called genre films.

There are rumours that Hollywood may be calling time on the chick flick. The new money-makers are "dick flicks" such as Knocked Up and Superbad - where the female characters are at best sketchy and often misogynist. What's so radical about a group of guys laughing about the funny things women's bodies do?

The Jane Austen Book Club isn't perfect. Yes, it is formulaic and sentimental. But you get to see some fabulous acting by older women (why isn't Kathy Baker a major star?). Nothing gets blown up. It's a great way to spend Saturday afternoon. Go and see it now - it may be your last chance.

The Jane Austen Book Club
Cert: 12A