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Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' is a winning romance in which real life sneaks up on the bookish
'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' is a catchy, provocative title for writer-director Laura Piani's debut feature, but it is a bit of a misnomer. Her heroine, Agathe (Camille Rutherford), may harbor that fear deep inside, but it's never one she speaks aloud. A lonely clerk working at the famed Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, she gets lost in the love notes left on the store's mirror and complains to her best friend and coworker Felix (Pablo Pauly) that she was born in the wrong century, unwilling to engage in casual 'digital' connection. Highly imaginative, Agathe perhaps believes she's alone because she won't settle for anything less than a Darcy. Good thing, then, that Felix, posing as her agent, sends off a few chapters of her fantasy-induced writing to the Jane Austen Residency. And who should pick up Agathe from the ferry but a handsome, prickly Englishman, Oliver (Charlie Anson), the great-great-great-great-grandnephew of Ms. Austen herself. She can't stand him. It's perfect. 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' is the kind of warm romance that will make any bookish dreamer swoon, as a thoroughly modern woman with old-fashioned ideas about love experiences her own Austenesque tumble. While Agathe initially identifies with the wilting old maid Anne from 'Persuasion,' her shyly budding connection with Oliver is more Elizabeth Bennet in 'Pride and Prejudice.' A pastoral English estate is the ideal setting for such a dilemma. The casting and performances are excellent for this contemporary, meta update: Rutherford is elegant but often awkward and fumbling as Agathe, while Anson conveys Oliver's passionate yearning behind his reserved, wounded exterior with just enough Hugh Grantian befuddlement. Pauly plays the impulsive charlatan with an irrepressible charm. But it isn't just the men that have Agathe in a tizzy. The film is equally as romantic about literature, writing and poetry as it is about such mundane issues as matters of the flesh. A lover of books, Agathe strives to be a writer but believes she isn't one because of her pesky writer's block. It's actually a dam against the flow of feelings — past traumas and heartbreaks — that she attempts to keep at bay. It's through writing that Agathe is able to crack her heart open, to share herself and to welcome in new opportunities. 'Writing is like ivy,' Oliver tells Agathe. 'It needs ruins to exist.' It's an assurance that her past hasn't broken her but has given her the necessary structure to let the words grow. The way the characters talk about what literature means to them — and what it means to put words down — will seduce the writerly among the viewers, these discussions even more enchanting than any declarations of love or ardent admiration. If you've read any Austen (or watched any of the films made from her novels), Piani's movie will be pleasantly predictable in its outcome, but that doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable journey. It's our expectations, both met and upended, that give the film its appealing cadence. It never lingers too long and is just sweet enough in its displays to avoid any saccharine aftertaste or eye-rolling sentiment. There's a salve-like quality to 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,' a balm for any battered romantic's soul. It may be utter fantasy, but it's the kind of escape you'll want to revisit again and again, like a favorite Austen novel. And, as it turns out, our main character is wrong. Jane Austen didn't wreck her life, rather, she opened it up to the possibilities that were right in front of her. Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
Chicago Tribune
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' review: Writing and living her own private rom-com
A pleasant, low-friction bit of romantic fiction, 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' is the first feature from writer-director Laura Piani. In her mid-20s, Piani worked in Paris in the venerable English-language bookshop Shakespeare and Company, a primary location in this debut project. When Piani took a job there, she'd already had her head filled as a teenager by the smart women and foolish choices, happily avoided, created by the author and life-wrecker of this film's title. The story's nice and simple. It takes its aspiring-novelist protagonist outside her comfort zone, from Paris to an Austen writing residency in England. Piani's film is, in itself, a comfort zone for viewers, the latest of many cinematic mash notes to Jane Austen, from 'Clueless' to four 'Bridget Jones' movies. Pulling from the filmmaker's life, the character of Agathe — played with untheatrical gravity and hints of a blithe spirit in the making by Camille Rutherford — spends her days among the stacks at Shakespeare and Company, sorting, helping customers, dishing with her good friend and fellow employee Felix (Pablo Pauly). He's bachelor No. 1, a bit of a cad but reasonably charming about it. His intentions may be up in the air regarding Agathe, but he looks out for her. He sneaks a look at the chapters she's written and, impressed, submits them behind her back to the Austen residency for consideration. It works, and reluctantly Agatha accepts the two weeks in the English countryside with other invitees toiling on their own projects. Earlier, in an anxious state over the prospect of finishing her novel, Agathe is pessimistic. Felix mansplains that she suffers from imposter syndrome. Her reply: 'No, I don't, I'm a imposter.' The scenario's bachelor No. 2 arrives in the brooding personage of Oliver (Charlie Anson), the great-great-great-great-nephew of Austen herself. He's no fan, though ('overrated'), which gives Agathe, the visitor he picks up at the ferry landing, something to argue about straight off. From there, Piani's film does its self-assigned work in solid if programmatic fashion, establishing a back bench of supporting characters at the residency, as well as at home in Paris where Agathe, who hasn't dated in a couple of years, lives with her sister and nephew. She's a tough nut, emotionally guarded in the wake of the sisters' parents' death in a car crash. These circumstances are layered enough to make 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' a little more than rom-com piffle, though there's little romantic tension in Piani's triangle since Oliver is the auxiliary Mr. Darcy here, and therefore a pre-ordained match made in literary heaven. Shot entirely in France, the movie renders its ideas of romantic melancholy and Agathe's default romantic defeatism in ways that reassure the audience every second. Agathe is either inside her beautiful bookshop, her beautiful, sunny Parisian domicile or roaming a beautiful house and grounds for knocking out a novel while your heart figures things out. Piani did the right thing in casting Rutherford, whose physical embodiment of Agathe suggests a tall, gangly, striking woman trying not to be seen. The actress leans into the character's unsettled, often sullen side, though not at the expense of the comic tropes (at one point, nude, she walks through her bathroom door, which turns out to be Oliver's room). Rutherford provides the internal friction throughout, while the generally frictionless mechanics of the movie itself hum along, with soothing sights and sounds. These include the fine actress Liz Crowther, as the Austen residency's hostess, quoting Wordsworth's notion of the best part of life: the 'little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.' 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' — 3 stars (out of 4) MPA rating: R (for language, some sexual content, and nudity) Running time: 1:34 How to watch: Premieres in select theaters May 23
NZ Herald
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
National pride and prejudice: The French film celebrating Jane Austen … and Love, Actually
This year's French film festival delivers a movie bringing a Gallic sensibility to that most English of novelists, Jane Austen. Aptly, the film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life – or as it was originally titled, Jane Austen a gâché ma vie – starts in a bookshop. It also ends in
UPI
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Camille Rutherford: 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' captures creative turmoil
1 of 5 | Camille Rutherford stars in "Jane Austen Wrecked My Life," in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics LOS ANGELES, May 20 (UPI) -- Camille Rutherford says her new movie Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, in theaters Friday, captures artistic struggles. Rutherford plays Agathe, an aspiring French writer who attends a Jane Austen workshop in England. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Rutherford said she related to Agathe's creative struggles. Though Rutherford has been acting since 2010, including in the critically-acclaimed film Anatomy of a Fall and TV's Paris Has Fallen, she related to Agathe's imposter syndrome. "Whenever I start a new job as an actress, I always feel like I'm not going to be good enough, like Agathe when she's trying to write novels," Rutherford said. "We all have moments in our lives where we feel we're not intelligent, funny, witty, intelligent, cool enough for anything, in our career, in our relationships." Rutherford said she has friends and family who are authors. She confirmed that the film's depictions of Agathe procrastinating, even while at the exclusive retreat, are accurate in her experience. "It demystifies writing," Rutherford said. "You see Agathe looking at her phone instead of writing, looking out the window having fantasies about men. I could relate to that." When someone else has written dialogue for her, however, Rutherford is committed to learning her part. "I always have my phone next to me, I'm not going to lie," she said. "It's always there and every ten minutes I'm like oh, I want to look at my phone but I try and look at it every half an hour." Laura Piani, who wrote and directed Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, confirmed Rutherford always knew her lines. Furthermore, Piani said the film is inspired as much by Austen's career as an author as it is the romantic works she wrote, such as Pride and Prejudice and Emma. "It was also important for me, for us to do a rom-com that would embrace the genre and play with the formula, that would not be a film about a woman saved by a man or saved by love," Piani said. "It's only because she reached this dream and she writes a book that she can actually be able to recognize love and go for it." Outside of writing, Agathe struggles with dating apps and works at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore with her friend, Felix (Pablo Pauly). Though the methods have evolved, Piani and Rutherford agreed people still long for Jane Austen romance. "We all want to fall in love," Rutherford said. "Solitude is not natural. People like being alone but there's a moment where we all need relationships. We all need to fall in love, to have sex, to be in a relationship. That's why we still need her romance. Not only her romance but any artist's vision of romance and romance in general." Piani added that Austen's sense of humor contributes to her works standing the test of time. "What she was hiding on the plate was the sense of humor, though," Piani said. "She was so ahead of her time that it's still talking to us today because she's timeless." Comedy in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life includes a nude scene featuring Rutherford. Agathe is preparing to bathe when she accidentally opens the door to the adjoining room instead of the bathroom. Oliver (Charlie Anson), one of Agathe's potential suitors, sees her naked, but Rutherford preferred being the butt of the joke to having a love scene. "I hate it when I have to be naked if it's a sex scene or it's about desire or seduction," Rutherford said. "It didn't have to be sexy. It was funny and my body could be wobbly wobbly wobbly."
Hamilton Spectator
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Movie Review: Romance and writer's block in bilingual rom-com ‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life'
Agathe is celibate by choice. The 30-something hero of filmmaker Laura Piani's feature debut 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,' played by the luminous Camille Rutherford, hasn't so much been ruined by Austen as she has been made acutely aware of her own limitations in both romance and literature. Neither she nor anyone else is good enough to make any big moves for. So, she sticks to the routine. She works at the legendary Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Co. , and bikes home, where she lives with her sister and young nephew. Sometimes she goes out to dinner. For what it's worth, Agathe also happens to epitomize French girl chic with her Breton stripes, red pout and effortlessly disheveled hair. There should be Instagram accounts devoted to her navy hooded parka. Life isn't bad, it's just not moving forward. And whatever is going to get her out of this self-imposed rut is going to be something special — she's read too many great books to accept anything less. Standards are great and all, but really, of course, it's Agathe who has to get out of her own way. And she does, one night, in a sake-induced daze in which she dreams up the first couple of chapters of a romance. Her best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly) gives her the push she needs and secretly submits the pages to a Jane Austen writers residency, where she's accepted and invited to spend a few weeks. Before she gets on the ferry (a hurdle in and of itself), Félix, a known serial dater and 'breadcrumber,' kisses her. It's the kind of development, a platonic friendship turned complicated, that's enough to properly distract an already reluctant writer with an impostor complex. When she arrives, there's another handsome distraction awaiting her: Oliver (Charlie Anson), a British literature professor and Austen's 'great great great great nephew' who thinks that the 'Pride and Prejudice' author is overrated. Agathe doesn't know he also speaks French until after she's complained about his arrogance to her sister within his earshot. It's a classic kind of setup, not exactly Mr. Darcy, but not not that either. Shared lodgings, even at a rather large, idyllic English estate, only ratchet up the will-they-won't-they tension as they see each other everywhere: walks in the woods, breakfast, after-dinner readings. And it's not without its slightly more cliche hijinks, like Agathe stripping down to nothing and opening a door to what she believes is the bathroom. It's not. Piani has constructed a rare gem in 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,' which manages to be literary without being pretentious. Its title is cheekily hyperbolic but has some truth to it as well. Modern romances for Austen disciples are bound to disappoint but, in this environment, they can justify having a costumed ball. The event is a swoony, romantic affair where we get to see the love triangle play out in all its glorious awkwardness. But while 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' certainly qualifies as a romantic comedy, the question of whom she ends up with is kind of beside the point. Don't worry, choices are made, but the way it plays out is both unexpected and gratifying — a clear-eyed portrait of why Agathe's singledom is not the problem. There's even a Frederick Wiseman cameo involved. Ultimately, this is a movie about a woman taking a bet on herself for perhaps the first time ever. Her actualization is not going to come through a boyfriend, a job or a makeover, but by sitting down and finally putting pen to paper. It may not be a strict adaptation, but it has Jane Austen's soul. 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,' a Sony Pictures Classics release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for 'some sexual content, nudity, language.' Running time: 94 minutes. Three stars out of four.
