Agathe, hopelessly clumsy yet charming and full of contradictions, finds herself in desperate singlehood. Her dream is to experience love akin to a Jane Austen novel and her ultimate aspiration is to become a writer. Instead, she spends her days selling books in the legendary English-language bookshop, Shakespeare & Co, in Paris. Invited to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England, she must confront her insecurities to finally fulfil her ambition of becoming a novelist and put an end to wasting her sentimental life.
The Garden Cinema View:
In the last decade, rom-coms have been replaced with either ironic deconstructions or clichéd soaps, often emerging from some kind of streaming-service purgatory. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life serves as a delightful revamp, adding depth to this endangered genre while preserving the romanticism and escapism that audiences expect.
Camille Rutherford is fantastic as the extremely clumsy and vulnerable Agathe, who learns how to reclaim her life in small ways, making her all the more modern and relatable. Equally refreshing is that the film consciously abstains from algorithmic online dating tropes, and exists among the (also) endangered world of writers, readers, and bookshops. Taking inspiration from Austen's literary universe, the film maintains all of Austen’s fun romantic dilemmas as well as her sharp focus on women's perspectives and self-actualisation.
