By John Corrado
Agathe Robinson (Camille Rutherford) is an aspiring romance novelist who works as a shopkeeper at Paris bookshop Shakespeare & Company. She fantasizes about Jane Austen, and longs for her own love story, but is perpetually single, and struggling with writer’s block.
Agathe is the protagonist of writer-director Laura Piani’s delightful new romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a lovely reminder of just how satisfying these classic rom-com tropes can be when done right. The film uses Austen’s work as a jumping off point for a modern love triangle, with shades of literary classics.
Agathe wants a relationship worthy of Jane Austen, and the film gives her two possible suiters; Felix (Pablo Pauly), her best friend and co-worker who shares a playful dynamic with her at the shop, and Oliver (Charlie Anson), who happens to be a distant nephew of Jane Austen herself. Just as things are starting to go in a different direction between her and Felix, she gets accepted into a Jane Austen writing residency.
This is where she meets Oliver, who is helping his elderly parents run the writing residency. At first, Jane finds him haughty and arrogant, and the two clash right from the start. But could there also be a romantic spark between the French girl and the Englishman? Still, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Agathe starts to miss Felix while she is at the retreat. Through this, the film presents two possible paths for her within the rom-com canon; enemies to lovers and friends to lovers.
Even if we can surmise where things might be heading, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life plays with such a gentle, crowd-pleasing quality that it’s hard not to fall for it. The film serves as an impressive feature directorial debut for Piani, whose accompanying screenplay is rich with literary analogies, as well as witty, insightful observations on relationships. Piani’s film has shades of Bridget Jones’s Diary, as well as the Jane Austen classics her characters frequently reference.
It’s not that Piani is reinventing the wheel, but rather showing us an example of this classic romantic comedy formula done well, and reminding us why it still holds so much appeal. It’s a clever conceit from a writer acknowledging they are working with familiar story beats, as a way to prove how tried and true these elements are. Perhaps metatextually, it’s something Agathe must contend with as well when faced with more “serious” writers at the residency.
The sun-dappled cinematography by Pierre Mazoyer gives everything a warm look, from the bookshop in Paris to the gardens and rooms of the old house where Agathe goes for the residency. Rutherford does appealing work in the lead, and shares enjoyable chemistry with Pauly and Anson, who make us understand both the appeal and drawbacks of Felix and Oliver as potential romantic partners. These are all the things that a good love story or romantic comedy should do, and Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a pretty wonderful example of one to just sit back and enjoy.
Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)
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