Rating: R | Runtime: 98 minutes
Release Date: January 22nd, 2025 (France) / May 23rd, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Paname Distribution / Sony Pictures Classics
Director(s): Laura Piani
Writer(s): Laura Piani

I’m not living in the right century.

Agathe Robinson’s (Camille Rutherford) womanizing best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly) jokes that she’s single because she hasn’t found her “Darcy” … but he’s not entirely wrong. A hopeless romantic, she writes the sort of love stories that make her creative writing teacher scoff about her needing to drag herself into the twenty-first century. She dreams of finding that spark that she knows she won’t via dating apps (if Félix’s one-night stands are any indication) and has all but closed herself off from it happening by disengaging from the more pragmatic real world. It’s to the point where she requests her server at the Chinese restaurant change her cup to the one with the naked man on the bottom.

Intriguingly enough, that request is exactly what Agathe needs to be inspired. Writer/director Laura Piani shows her feverishly writing a new story onto her placement in the aftermath—one that proves so captivating that Félix can’t help but ask for more upon reading it without her permission (albeit “permission” is hardly a word in their relationship’s vocabulary considering he’s often found sleeping on her and her sister’s couch when not meeting his next lady caller). Sadly, like with most of her stories, Agathe doesn’t know where to take it next. So, without her permission again, Félix sends this auspicious start to the Jane Austen Residency knowing she’d never do so herself. They also love it and invite her for a two-week stay to foster an epiphany.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life officially begins when Félix drives Agathe to England and kisses her goodbye. There are tragic circumstances behind why she has closed herself off to live in the fantasy of literature’s happily ever afters and it therefore makes sense that the one person who would understand her and push her to break free is her best friend. But is he her “Darcy”? Will this kiss arouse something inside her to finish the story? Or will its potential be blown out of proportion (or ruined by his tendency to ghost or “breadcrumb” women) once she’s left stewing on it alone miles away? We know the answer as soon as she meets her English driver Oliver (Charlie Anson) because he seems like everything she abhors in real life while inevitably proving to be everything she wants in fantasy.

There’s a lot more going on here than you might expect considering the crux of the film is ultimately whether Agathe chooses Félix or Oliver. We have her necessary confrontation with the past to restart her life ten years removed from the tragedy that paused everything. There’s the relationship between the kindly senile old man and his wife who run the residency with passion, lineage, and love for literature (with some Wordsworth to provide their guest much-needed clarity). And the imposter syndrome of Agathe being at a place meant for “real writers” despite being an amateur who wonders if this latest bit of writer’s block is the final nail in the coffin of her dream to get published. The thing is, however, that all those aspects play into her central decision.

In grand Jane Austen fashion is this unexpected odd-couple romance between two very like-minded souls lost beneath the baggage they’ve let burden their shoulders just when easier and expected answers arise to force them both into actually rolling the dice and pursuing what they want rather than what they have. Agathe gets sarcasm and a healthy push from everyone around her whether Félix, her sister Mona (Alice Butaud), or even her nephew Tom (Roman Angel) when he climbs into her bed because a man is in his mother’s and “she never has one in hers.” So, it only makes sense that the rapport she grows with Oliver follows suit—their blossoming affection born on the back of snide smiles and lengthy TMI dumps blurted out to assuage each other’s internalized shame.

And just when Agathe thinks she’s found love in one direction, the other arrives to grab her attention. And when the latter starts to win out, the former returns to muddy the waters yet again. Because love, like writing, isn’t easy. At a certain point, she must exit her comfort zone (or self-imposed exile) to experience the spontaneity of life. Yes, she might have been born a century too late when it comes to her sensibilities, but she’s also been too afraid to confront why that is and whether it can be changed. Because “safety” isn’t always safe. Sometimes it’s an illusion that proves to be yet another prison when all is said and done. It’s why she can’t finish a love story until she allows herself to live one … not just accidentally back into it from the fear of being forever alone.

Piani does a wonderful job paying homage to Austen while also mining the author’s place in literary and cultural history via this locale, her descendants, and the magic of finding one’s voice. The comedy is lively and infectious, especially whenever Rutherford and Anson are together playing coy so as not to let their defenses down. And the supporting cast is wonderful (Liz Crowther and Alan Fairbairn as the residency’s stewards are an absolute delight). We easily invest in Agathe’s struggle to escape her past and embrace her desire to be a writer and in love while witnessing the enjoyably rocky path taken towards that goal. As the age-old saying goes, one must first understand oneself before they can truly be vulnerable enough to let someone else know them too.

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Camille Rutherford as Agathe, Charlie Anson as Oliver in JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE; courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.