Out now in cinemas is Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. This French romantic comedy follows Agathe (Camille Rutherford), a book shop owner, as she tries to find herself during a two-week writing retreat. Directed and written by Laura Piani in her feature film debut, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a brilliant film.
All I knew about this film was its title. With such a blunt and straightforward title, I figured the film would be about a woman frustrated with her love life. There would be the usual tropes that one would find in films like Bridget Jones’s Diary and 27 Dresses, etc. Thankfully, Piani uses that expectation and flips it on its head. Though Agathe is somewhat distressed with her love life, that is not her true struggle. She wishes for creative fulfilment, she works in a book shop and is surrounded by art, yet her creative arts teacher describes her work as “cheap romance”. She struggles with finding her voice, then one night at her favourite Chinese restaurant, she has a moment and begins writing.
Her friend Félix (Pablo Pauly) secretly sends her first few chapters out into the ether, and someone responds from the Jane Austen Residency. This prized writer’s retreat offers Agathe two weeks of unfiltered creativity at the ancestral home of Jane Austen, with Jane Austen’s family running the retreat no less. It’s a writer’s dream, but with strong impostor syndrome, Agathe feels it is a daunting task.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life – Look for your ruins
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a love letter not just to Jane Austen, but to all artists out there looking for their moment. I have to admit I felt stirred by this film. A particular line hit me quite hard: “Look for your ruins”. It involved Agathe trying to find that perfect moment, that perfect place to write her masterpiece. I have felt that time after time, and when she was told that’s not how it works, I felt her relief.
The film is also dotted with a lot of genuine humour. If you’re a fan of Austen’s books and the adaptations that have been born from her work, you’re in for a treat. There is even a character, Oliver (Charlie Anson), who feels ripped right out of one of Austen’s books. My fianceé even noted he felt like several of her characters wrapped into one modern figure. He’s charming, dashing, and is an excellent foil to Agathe. I did feel though, that the film needed more time to breathe, maybe ten minutes. There were several characters I would have liked to have learned more about. I would actually go as far as to say this would have worked better as a mini-series.
This is just a testament to the engaging nature of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, though. It is a warm, thoughtful piece of storytelling about love and creativity told with a deft hand.
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