Review: 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' adds a French sensibility to the classic rom-com, fueled by the complex feelings for writing

One of the more outwardly funny things in the quietly humorous romantic comedy “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” is that it takes a French filmmaker to show us how to pull something fresh and fun out of that most English of wits, Jane Austen. 

In writer-director Laura Piani’s lovely feature debut, Camille Rutherford plays Agathe Robinson, who works in a Paris bookstore — OK, the best-known Paris bookstore to American cinephiles, Shakespeare and Company (seen in “Before Sunset” and “Midnight in Paris,” among other movies). 

When we meet her, Agathe’s life is rather stuck. She’s a writer, but can’t get past the first few chapters of anything she’s working on. She hasn’t had sex in two years, though her flirty co-worker Felix (Pablo Pauly) gives her plenty of opportunities. She’s afraid to get into a car, because of an accident seven years before that killed her parents. She lives with her sister, Mona (Alice Butaud), and Mona’s 6-year-old son, Tom (Roman Angel).

Agathe’s fantasy life is quite lively, though. In one scene, Agatha is eating alone in a Japanese restaurant, and she looks in the bottom of her sake cup and sees a picture of a naked man. Then, suddenly, that naked man is walking to her table, and they dance in the restaurant.

Agathe is inspired to write about the naked sake man — and is shocked when she finds out that Felix sent those opening chapters to The Austen Residency in England, who have accepted her for a two-week writing fellowship. Felix eventually convinces Agathe to get in his car for the ride to the ferry terminal.

Across the channel, Agathe gets picked up by Oliver (Charles Anson), who identifies himself as the great-great-great-grandnephew of Jane Austen herself. He also tells Agathe that he teaches contemporary literature at a nearby college — and that he’s not a fan of his ancestor’s writing. Agathe takes a dislike to Oliver as quickly and as strongly as Elizabeth Bennet did for Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice.” And if you don’t know where this all leads, you don’t know Austen or you’ve never seen a romantic comedy.

Even though Piani is clear about the destination, the road map provides some engaging twists and turns. Much of that comes from the other writers enrolled in the fellowship, including a well-traveled poet (Annabelle Lengronne) and a strident feminist theorist (Lola Peploe).

Rutherford is a charming leading lady, who embodies Piani’s Austen-like predilection not to define her female character not solely in relation to the men sniffing around her. Agathe finds that the fear of the blank page and the fear of moving forward in her life are identical, and Rutherford embodies both with humor and heartache.

Piani shows herself to be a true Jane Austen fan, and in “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” proves the old writer’s adage that if you’re going to steal, steal from the best.

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‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’

★★★

Opens Friday, May 30, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language, some sexual content and nudity. Running time: 98 minutes; in French with subtitles and English.