Review: Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

If you're thinking that a film about a love-averse bookshop employee who adores Jane Austen, but avoids romance, and is invited to spend a week at Austen's home for a writer's workshop where she'll most likely find love sounds like the setup to a corny early 2000s rom com, I won't fault you. But you'd be wrong.

"Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" involves the aforementioned scenario but its lead character is Frenchwoman Agathe (Camille Rutherford) and its take on the literature-inspired romantic comedy is more French than Hollywood and, therefore, a little more risque and a sharper-than-average film of this sort.

Agathe is prompted to attend the workshop by best friend Felix (Pablo Pauly), a possible romantic interest, after he comments on the gloomy state in which she's been since she recovered from a car accident that claimed her parents' lives. Her sister, Mona (Alice Butaud), thinks that the getaway will do Agathe good and comments that she needs some attention from the opposite sex.

While the film starts out as a fish-out-of-water comedy - Agathe thrown in among the Brits in a quaint countryside manor - it soon becomes more of a will-they-or-won't-they romantic dramedy after she runs afoul of the scion of the Austen estate, Oliver (Charlie Anson). He's a bit stuffy but droll in the British sense, especially during a very funny scene in which Agathe mistakes his bedroom for a bathroom.

Nothing happens here that you don't expect - Agathe comes to the weekend with writer's block and continues to suffer from it, Oliver's possibly dementia-suffering father causes some nude mischief in the garden, and Agathe struggles with her feelings for both Felix and Oscar - but it's done in a humorous, charming, and decidedly French manner.

While there is some humor in the film - though it's more of a quiet nature than the laugh-out-loud type - "Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" is similar to the "Bridget Jones" series in that it is primarily concerned with the foibles, of the artistic and romantic type, of its headstrong lead character. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but instead gives some well-worn material a fun and refreshing spin.