Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a traditional rom-com movie subverted by a modern setting and oblique references to that author. Laura Piani writes and directs this small-scale romantic comedy about a young woman working in a Paris bookshop, writing Austen-like rom-com material on the side, and pining for love. Awkward in some respects, passionately graceful in other contexts, Agathe is invited to a Jane Austen residency in rural England where she meets a brooding young Englishman who begins to compete for her affections against her bookshop male friend. The film offers a pleasant mix of evocative scenery and music, and the plotline contains much nuance, but the execution is slow, haphazard, and sometimes clunky. A number of scenes stand out for being seemingly purposeless. Camille Rutherford inhabits the character of Agathe well, but the two male leads make little impression in spite of a serviceable script. Little tension drives the story forward to a rom-com climax and the finale fails to land a closing blow. An opportunity missed is how I would describe Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.
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