Romantic comedies can be sustaining for quirkyalones. When you’re single for a long time, fueling your singlehood with the belief that the one (or of course, one of the ones) might be out there, you need religion to continue to bolster your belief. That belief needs to be fortified, of course, by romantic comedies. All the better if the character who finally finds love is a long-single, cynical, self-sufficient woman who doesn’t believe it’s ever going to happen to her. I root for those characters so much more!

Last night I stumbled on such a movie. The Jane Austen Book Club. I  love Jane Austen–especially Pride and Prejudice–I thought it would just be a soothing weekday rental.  The synopsis: Six Californians meet in a monthly book group to discuss Austen’s novels, and find their own lives reflected in their plots. Maria Bello plays Jocelyn in the lead role, a long-single dog breeder who has a history of putting her best friend above her own romantic needs and meeting her emotional needs with her dog. The movie opens with an elaborate dog funeral! She has a line in the beginning of the movie that I just loved, “I’ve never been in love. I’ve had sexual partners.” I won’t spoil the ending for you, but of course, good things do come to those who wait (and lost faith).

Two years ago, the then 39-year-old actress Maria Bello, a single mother of a five-year old, told the New York Times in a profile, “George Clooney says he’s a bachelor for life and everyone thinks it’s cool,” she said. “But if a woman doesn’t want to get married, there’s something wrong with her.”  That quote stuck with me too.  I knew she was a quirkyalone then. . . She is totally radiant as a quirkyalone in the movie. Rent it, it’s my feel-good tip of the week.