It takes a certain willingness to a turn a blind eye to Lady Jane's sacred parchments to make a movie as soapy and sappy as "The Jane Austen Book Club."

Then again, any filmmaker who spotlights Aimee Mann's "Save Me" in a climactic third-act scene must be banking on her audience's willingness to forgive the fact that the movie is a country mile from "Magnolia" in terms of quality and emotional truth.

Of course, "Book Club" isn't meant to be grounded in any kind of reality, is it? Set in Sacramento, filmed in Long Beach, adapted from a chick-lit best-seller, Robin Swicord's movie revolves around six women whose romantic lives echo the heroines in Austen's six books.

As one woman giddily chirps: "All Jane Austen, all the time! It's the perfect antidote - to life!"

That's the rallying cry behind the formation of the titular book club, which is established by perennial divorcee den mother Bernadette (Kathy Baker) to help Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) forget the fact that her husband (Jimmy Smits) of 20 years has bailed.

Charter members include Sylvia's lesbian daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace), singleton dog breeder Jocelyn (Maria Bello) and neurotic French teacher Prudie (Emily Blunt), whose Neanderthal husband (Marc Blucas) thinks Austen is a city in Texas.

Since Austen didn't believe every man had to be a numbskull, the movie serves up the dreamy Grigg (Hugh Dancy), a washboard-abbed sensitive dude who happily laps up Austen's novels while pining for Jocelyn. Prudie also has an admirer, a high-school hunk (Kevin Zegers) who, she says, "looks at me like I'm the spoon and he's the dish of ice cream."

Lines like that are best heard while holding a pint of Ben & Jerry's in one hand and the remote in the other. Thanks to the game cast, notably Bello and Blunt, "The Jane Austen Book Club" will make for passable programming when the movie arrives a few months from now on Lifetime Television.

Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp@dailynews.com

review>

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB 

>PG-13: sexual content, brief strong language, some drug use.
>Starring: Maria Bello, Amy Brenneman, Kathy Baker, Emily Blunt.
>Director: Robin Swicord.
>Running time: 1 hr. 45 min.
>Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino; Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena; ArcLight in Hollywood; AMC Century 15 in Century City; Laemmle's Monica in Santa Monica.
>In a nutshell: Little in the way of sense, waylaid by soapy sensibility.