‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’ – Review
Rom-com lovers, rejoice, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life has arrived in cinemas, and it’s the kind of sparkling French cinema that makes you want to curl up with a croissant in one hand and your well-worn copy of Pride and Prejudice in the other. Playful, self-aware, and brimming with bookish heart, this is a film that celebrates the joys (and absolute mess) of falling in love with stories: and maybe even stumbling into love yourself along the way.
Desperately single and plagued by writer’s block, Agathe (Camille Rutherford) gets invited to the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England. Caught in an unexpected romantic triangle, she must let go of her insecurities to decide what she really wants for herself.
Okay book lovers, buckle up, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is the perfect French-tinged rom-com potion we didn’t know we needed. Directed by Laura Piani, this is not your cookie-cutter Regency remix, it’s a fresh, quirky remix that vibes big on literary love, self-discovery, and picking yourself up by the collar when life, or writer’s block, has you firmly at bay.
We meet Agathe (Camille Rutherford), a Parisian dreamer with a gnarly case of writer’s block. She works in the hallowed halls of Shakespeare & Co., cycles everywhere (because cars trigger trauma), and hasn’t written, or dated, in years. She lives in a neat emotional rut until her bestie, Félix (Pablo Pauly), secretly submits her half-written pages to a Jane Austen writing residency, and boom, suddenly she’s whisked away to the English countryside.
From here, the movie shifts from cozy Paris to lush manor life. Enter Oliver (Charlie Anson); haughty, handsome, and Jane Austen’s “descendant” who, scandalously, thinks she’s overrated. Cue major eye-rolling, ensuing verbal sparring, and then that weird electric spark that only classic brit-dramedy setups can conjure.
This is where Piani’s debut shines: she flips the rom-com checklist with meta self-awareness. We get contrived car breakdowns, Regency-style balls, and accidental doors being opened to the wrong room to shocking hysterics; but the heart of it is Agathe’s journey. She’s not just trying to figure out whom to kiss at the ball—she’s trying to find her own damn voice. And I stan that.
Camille Rutherford truly embodies “bookish chic” – breathlessly awkward, secretly fierce, and utterly living rent-free in our hearts. Her Agathe is vulnerable, charming, and smartly introspective; a quiet heroine wrestling with grief, imposter syndrome, and what it means to romanticize life while actually living it. Add in Pablo Pauly’s warm, knowing Félix and Charlie Anson’s prickly-turned-rewarding Oliver, and the romantic tug-of-war feels organic and emotionally balanced.
Visually, the film cozy-bombs us with Parisian charm before whisking us to serene English gardens, and even here, the film knows its genre tropes but never lets them sap the soul. The dialogue zips and dips but skates the cozy line with clever self-awareness: no full snark-overload, just enough to make you smile while thinking, “Yeah, I get that, too.”
By the end, we don’t just get a romance; Agathe finishes her novel, embraces her “ruins,” and maybe, just maybe, leans into an epic love rather than arm’s-length fantasy. It’s a little messy, a bit familiar, but achingly resonant for anyone who’s ever daydreamed their life into a story.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a soft-spoken love letter to the book lovers and daydreamers out there, and it fully delivers on its new rendition of the classic rom-com. It’s whimsical, clever, and a little mischievous, a cinematic comfort blanket for every reader who ever lost themselves in a novel and wondered if their own happy ending could be just a page away. For Austen fans and hopeless romantics alike, this one is an absolute delight, and yes, it may just wreck you in the best way possible.
Image: Paname Distribution
