“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” (2024)
I saw an interview with Laura Piani, the writer-director of “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” where she said something along the lines that Jane Austen invented the romantic comedy, and I could not agree more.
Jane Austen stories have dominated my love of romantic comedies, starting with “Clueless,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” in the 1990s, leading to a deep dive into her books in my teens, a love of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (the book and the movie), followed by the beloved 2005 “Pride & Prejudice,” a series of fantastic BBC/PBS Masterpiece Theatre adaptations in the late 2000s and continuing to this day in films like “Fire Island” and “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”
While this movie is not an adaptation of an Austen novel, it is most definitely a story in the same vein that surrounds a writing fellowship named after the iconic author that is run by Austen’s ancestors.
The story of “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” centers around Agathe (Camille Rutherford), a French bookstore employee who is an aspiring writer. Her coworker and friend submits a draft of her unfinished manuscript to the aforementioned Jane Austen fellowship, which involves a retreat in England.
She is reluctant to go, but does after some prodding from her loved ones.
Rutherford is transcendent as Agathe, a character I could really relate to. Sure, we’re not all doing big things like winning a Jane Austen fellowship, but I think a lot of us can relate to the feeling of being stuck and feelings of fear about what it might take to get unstuck.
“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” doesn’t shy away from the awkward moments Agathe faces. Agathe’s journey and apprehension about moving forward definitely set this apart from the typical romcom in a way that truly makes you wonder what might happen next.
I shared that video from Piani uplifting Jane Austen alongside a quote from filmmaker Celine Song (“Past Lives,” “Materialists”) talking about how powerful romantic comedies can be. I hope this year’s “The Wedding Banquet” remake, “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” and Song’s “Materialists” usher in a new golden age of theatrical romcoms, something I know many of us would love.
Most of these movies are getting limited releases, so I implore you to seek them out when they come to a theater near you. Let’s make it a romcom summer and kick it off with “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.”