A clumsy heroine, a poetic Paris, and two wildly different suitors fuel this smart, silly Austen riff.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Writer-director Laura Piani’s cleverly titled “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” is a delightful celebration of literature and romance, however awkward. It’s slightly askew, Austen-esque heroine Agathe Robinson (Camille Rutherford, who had small parts in “Holy Motors” and “Blue Is the Warmest Color”) is tall, dark-haired, and boasts an unmistakable “Is she beautiful or not?” quality that makes her mysterious and different. Agathe lives in Paris with her sister Mona (Alice Butaud) and her sister’s 6-year-old son Tom (Roman Angel), whom she helps to raise. Agathe’s best friend is her coworker Felix (Pablo Pauly), and they are not sure if they are romantic couple material, although Felix often sleeps at Mona and Agathe’s flat. Notably, Agathe and Felix work at Shakespeare and Company, one of the most famous bookstores in the world. Under the stewardship of Sylvia Beach, Shakespeare and Company published Irishman James Joyce’s scandalous “Ulysses” in 1922. The film does not go into any of this, which I found strange. But as it turns out, Agathe has also been working on a novel of her own, and Felix has clandestinely sent her opening chapters to the Austen Residency, a writer’s retreat in England. The Residency offers Agathe a place to stay for eight weeks. Felix insists that she accept.
“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” takes literature more seriously than it takes itself. Agathe likes to dance, but is ungainly and often takes a spill. She’s petulant at times. The bookstore, alongside the Seine, has a mirror on which customers leave romantic notes for strangers they have seen in the shop and want to meet. “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), the author’s first novel, is Agathe’s favorite, perhaps because it is a story about sisters searching for romantic partners. Sister Mona is no better than Agathe on this subject since she forgets the name of a man with whom she has just slept.
Agathe, who has not had sex for two years and feels like a loser, may remind some viewers more of Anne Elliot, the unmarried, 27-year-old heroine of “Persuasion” (1817), Austen’s last novel. In the book, Anne gets what appears to be one last chance at love and happiness. In England, Agathe meets Oliver (Charlie Anson, “Death on the Nile”), the son of the owners of the Residency manor house. Oliver tools around the woods of, presumably, Hampshire in a vintage MG Midget. Oliver’s father Todd (Alan Fairbairn) appears to have dementia and can often be found in the garden in the morning without his pants. Piani’s decision to handle dementia with a light touch might offend some. Of course, the Residency will host a grand ball in period costumes for their writers. A besotted Felix will visit Agathe and dance with her, causing Oliver, a great-nephew many times over of Austen herself, to realize his love for her. Suddenly, clumsy, sex-starved Agathe enjoys the attentions of two suitors.
Will this Austen heroine, who feels like she was born into the “wrong century,” find love with her eccentric best friend from the bookstore or the goofy, but dashing English heir to a manor house? As its title suggests, “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” should not be taken very seriously. But it is great fun thanks to Rutherford’s offbeat appeal. Pauli’s humor can be as clumsy as Agathe and sometimes even coarse. Is it a good idea to have Cambridge, MA’s film-making legend, Frederick Wiseman, who has lived in Paris for 20 years, play a poet reciting lines by Jack Hirschman in a final scene? Not entirely. It’s distracting (Wiseman also appears in the Jodie Foster-fronted, mostly French language feature “A Private Life”). But the wild wallpaper of the Residency is as crazy as its literary residents, and Rutherford’s Agathe is almost certainly the first Austen heroine to get spat in the eye by a llama.
‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’
Rating: R for language, some sexual content and nudity.
Cast: Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson
Director/writer: Laura Piani
Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Where to Watch: AMC Boston Common, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, Coolidge Corner Theater.
Grade: B+
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