Best Actress 2013: Keri Russell, Austenland

Jerusha Hess, who cowrote Napoleon Dynamite with her husband Jared, makes her directing debut with Austenland.  Hess adapted the screenplay along with Shannon Hale from Hale's novel about professional Jane Hayes (Keri Russell) who is obsessed with the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice to the point she visits a JaneAusten-inspired theme park in search of her Mr. Darcy.  The film also stars Jennifer Coolidge, Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords), and Jane Seymour.  Along with Hess, Stephenie Meyer (Twilight) is one of the producers.  Filmed in West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire and made on a budget of around $7.5M, it was bought by Exclusive Releasing, Film District, and Sony Picture Classics for $4M at Sundance.  Critics haven't jumped up and down for Russell.  Ion Cinema: "Russell is an endearing enough screen presence."  Film School Rejects: "A poorly-drawn leading lady who, had she not been played by someone as lovely as Russell."  Twitch: "The winsome Keri Russell flails and flounders as Jane Hayes."  New York Post (via ingrate Kyle Smith): "Though Russell has a bright-eyed eagerness about her, her limitations as an actress mean the character is blandly nice."  Regardless, its commercial prospects sound promising.