Final Rating: 3.5/5
Laura Piani’s debut feature Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (or Jane Austen à gauché ma vie in the film’s native French) assures viewers drawn in by the title that they have come to the right place from its opening moments. The introduction to the central character Agathe (Camille Rutherford) sees her dancing around Paris’s Shakespeare & Co., the shop of every book nerd’s dreams, reading the romantic musings of missed connection post-its left on the walls.
Agathe is completely in her element here, sheltered from the rough critiques of her writing teacher and the memories of a traumatizing car accident that took her parents 10 years earlier. Agathe has learned to keep her world small – but full of love, thanks to the home she shares with her sister Mona (Alice Butaud) and 6-year-old nephew Tom (Roman Angel), not to mention the constant presence of her womanizing best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly).
Agathe drops all the requisite Jane Austen references you would expect. She compares Félix to Mansfield Park’s Henry Crawford, calling him a “liar and seducer,” hoping he also becomes a “Cassanova caught in his own game when he falls in love.” (The pair constantly rib each-other with the good-natured jibes only allowed by those who know us best and accept us as we are.)
As for herself, although she states Sense & Sensibility (a novel about grief) is her favorite book, she likens herself not to either of that novel’s protagonists, but to Anne Elliot, the pathologically mild-mannered leading lady of Persuasion, whom she calls: “a wilted old maid…who has let life pass her by.”
She may be living the bookshop-keeper dreams of Austen lovers everywhere, but she herself feels like she’s living in the wrong story. And so the question of the film becomes: which kind of Jane Austen novel will this be? Is the lesson she needs to learn that she should open her eyes to the beauty of the life she already leads, and the man who takes up so much space in it? Or is this a film where she discovers a better version of her life by stepping outside her comfort zone and meeting someone new?
Félix, ever the ally, is the one who pushes her to explore the latter option: behind her back, he submits her romance novel in progress to a Jane Austen-themed writing workshop in England. When Agathe is accepted, her sister and Félix team up to pressure her to go – nevermind that she will need to travel by car to get there, something she has successfully avoided for a decade. (The existence of trains is never mentioned in this movie.)
Agathe’s trusty bestie will charm her through the first part of the road trip, ending in a ferry-side kiss that sends her head spinning. Especially when Oliver (Charlie Anson) picks her up on the other side, looking every bit like a character from Pride & Prejudice. But which dashing leading man is he? Anson’s Hugh Grant-esque face says the dastardly Mr. Wickham. Yet fans of that book are given plenty of reason to hope for a take on the curmudgeonly turned deeply romantic Mr. Darcy instead.
The fact that he happens, of course, to be Jane Austen’s great, great, great nephew – though he is not so much a fan of her himself, despite being a literature professor – is just icing on the rom-com cake. This gives Agathe an opening to school him in early modern feminism, lauding Jane Austen for being one of the first to make women human (“even capable of humor”), rather than the idealized perfection or monsters she says are found in Oliver’s favorites, Dickens and Shakespeare.
Thankfully, the film gives Agathe a richer inner life beyond simply flirting with these two men. Her writing career always remains her focus, even when drowning in self-doubt-induced writer’s block. If that element sounds slightly cliché, it’s not the only element of the story you’ll find so. There are plenty of plot conveniences, like how surprisingly well all the English characters speak French – though Agathe is at least given a beat to be appropriately surprised about this.
The send-up of literary snobbery can feel a bit unnecessarily defensive, and the other attendees of the retreat at first appear to be stereotypes. Yet, as the story continues, Agathe learns to see through her own expectations. The only element that’s truly potentially objectionable is the somewhat careless portrayal of manic pixie dream dementia. (Well, and a warning for those trying to quit smoking: this film’s use of cigarettes will pose the ultimate test. It’s unapologetically French.)
Otherwise, the film nests in familiar territory, but updates that comfortable corner of cinema with modern flourishes that keep it feeling fresh. Do expect a ball, but don’t expect it to play out the way you might think.
Fortunately, all the pining and scribing looks absolutely lovely. Set decorator Agnès Sery has created a world that’s luxuriously lived in, and director of photography Pierre Mazoyer frames it beautifully. And the film is funny! Regularly laugh-out-loud funny, from an opening scene where sister Mona keeps calling her resigned overnight bedroom guest by the wrong name to the surprised reactions Agathe gets upon her arrival in England, because Félix called ahead to tell them she needs to rest on account of her advanced age (a reference to her snide remarks about being an Anne Elliot). The antics of this loving group of people often elicit dark chuckles. Whatever her hang-ups, Agathe has good people around her who truly love her.
If you’re getting the sense that Jane Austen superfans may get more of the in-jokes, that’s true. But rom-com lovers of all stripes likely won’t mind letting the references wash over them, and won’t find they detract from the likable characters, warmth, and humor. (Not to mention the tidy 94-minute runtime.) Jane Austen fanatic or not, if this is your genre, then Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is likely to become a comfort-food classic.
Thank you Sony Classics, Mongrel Media, and Star PR for the screener.
