X
- 2025
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 38 m
- 2025
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 38 m
Summary Agathe (Camille Rutherford) is a hopelessly clumsy yet charming young woman who works in the legendary Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris, while she dreams of being a successful writer, and of experiencing love akin to a Jane Austen novel, she finds herself desperately single and plagued by writers block. When Agathe’s best friend (Pabl...
Directed By: Laura Piani
Written By: Laura Piani
- 2025
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 38 m
- 2025
- R
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 1 h 38 m
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
73
7.5
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Summary Agathe (Camille Rutherford) is a hopelessly clumsy yet charming young woman who works in the legendary Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris, while she dreams of being a successful writer, and of experiencing love akin to a Jane Austen novel, she finds herself desperately single and plagued by writers block. When Agathe’s best friend (Pabl...
Directed By: Laura Piani
Written By: Laura Piani
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 25 Critic Reviews
73
80% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
20% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 25 Critic Reviews
73
80% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
20% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
May 23, 2025
There’s a salve-like quality to Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a balm for any battered romantic’s soul. It may be utter fantasy, but it’s the kind of escape you’ll want to revisit again and again, like a favorite Austen novel.
May 23, 2025
What rescues the movie from being mere flimsy fun is Rutherford’s performance. She gives Agathe’s waywardness a gravity, a hint of darkness.
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 14 User Ratings
7.5
71% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
29% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 14 User Ratings
7.5
71% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
29% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Aug 9, 2025
****/2025/08/jane-austen-wrecked-my-life-voyage-of.html We know that roughly 50,000 years ago, Earth emerged from the last Ice Age, and the civilization we recognize today took shape within that span. The past 200 years, however, have unfolded at a breathtaking pace. Through transformations in production, humanity has met its needs—healthcare, transportation, security, communication—in ways once unimaginable., The Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of capitalism not only reshaped society but also unlocked new realms of human **** 1817, just 208 years ago, Jane Austen passed away at the age of 42. Living at the dawn of this transformative era and departing far too soon, she nonetheless secured her place among the **** film inspired by her legacy is called Jane Austen WreckedMy **** its heart is a young, literature-loving woman working in a Parisian bookstore, an ardent admirer of Jane Austen. Her story underscores that, even 200 years after Austen’s death, her influence endures undimmed. Austen’s gift to a changing world was her ability to “tell stories once narrated only by men through a woman’s eyes.” This is how the young bookseller defends Austen to writer’s fifth-generation nephew, a literature **** an era where emotional connections are often reduced to digital apps, can Austen’s stories still infuse our lives with love and meaning? Especially when you claim she might ruin them?Weaving a journey and a road tale into its fabric, the story follows Agathe, who first proves this possibility with Felix, a longtime friend. Then enters Oliver, a literature professor and Austen’s distant nephew, and the timeless clichés of love—old and new—parade forth:A fleeting kiss with a friend on a windswept beach, a night spent in a car with a stranger in a lonely forest, a spark kindled while singing and drinking in a bar, or the torment of wavering between two loves.Doesn’t the mere fact that this story begins in a Parisian bookstore and unfolds at Jane Austen’s home carry a certain enchantment?Though titled Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, the film ultimately reveals how Austen breathes love into existence.Spanning the literary and romantic capitals of France and England, the story flows seamlessly between French and English, as if plucked from a time machine, unburdened by mundane cares and moving with pristine clarity.Beyond the shadow of a tragic car accident, the characters seem untouched by the material world’s woes. This stems not from wealth but from the realization that true meaning lies in the intangible, not the material.Venturing to speak boldly about Jane Austen—as a brave atempt in waters teeming with sharp-toothed critics—I can say, with the film’s tender naivety, that it captures Austen’s essence to its core.Love, as a pure and innocent force, may never have truly existed. Yet Austen gave voice to this “unreal.” And chasing the unreal is the only path to drawing near it.Among the film’s evocative soundtrack, Schubert’s Fantasiastands out, lending a period authenticity that earns the female director resounding applause.Schubert, nearly Austen’s contemporary yet cursed with an even much shorter life, akin to a swan song, imbues the story with profound emotional resonance.That Schubert succumbed to syphilis, the plague of his time, serves as a stark reminder that life diverges from the tales we tell.Jane Austen Wrecked My Life transcends a mere love story, becoming a manifesto for humanity’s quest for meaning. The words that flowed from Austen’s pen are reborn two centuries later—in Agathe’s bookstore, on a windswept beach, or during a night spent in a car. This story reveals that, while love and romance may not exist in their purest forms, their pursuit is an eternal truth.Perhaps Austen’s power to narrate the “unreal” is why her stories don’t destroy us but instead ignite passion and meaning in our lives. To the melancholic strains of Schubert’s Fantasia, the pursuit of a naive hope retains its timeless value, as vital today as in pre-modern times.This journey—from the narrow streets of Paris to Austen’s home in Chawton—celebrates not only a literary icon’s legacy but also the enduring romantic spirit within us all. And perhaps the true point is not that Austen ruined our lives, but that she opened the door to a world she brought vividly to life.
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Jun 11, 2025
What elevates Jane Austen Wrecked My Life above the typical romantic comedy is its approach. The film unfolds at a leisurely (European) pace, which allows its richly drawn characters, keen observations, sharp dialog and earthy humor to win us over. It’s an unassuming little gem that respects its characters and the audience’s intelligence in equal measure. Highly Recommended. detroitcineaste
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Jun 20, 2025
Modestly scoped, sometimes sweetly dopey, and sincerely moving, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a charmer.
May 22, 2025
Piani did the right thing in casting Rutherford, whose physical embodiment of Agathe suggests a tall, gangly, striking woman trying not to be seen. The actress leans into the character’s unsettled, often sullen side, though not at the expense of the comic tropes.
May 19, 2025
The formula persists two centuries after Austen perfected it because it’s aspirational and satisfying at the same time: We want it to wreck our own lives, too. It’s durable precisely because it’s pliable, offering storytellers a template in which to explore their own era’s mores and ideals, questions and anxieties.
Jun 11, 2025
The comedy takes a bit of an IQ dip when the film crosses the Channel and the dialogue switches to English. Still, it glides along on Rutherford’s performance as Agathe – witty, warm, keenly observant, a bit clumsy and Bridget Jones-ish, but never, not even for a moment, cringy.
Jun 12, 2025
All this is window dressing that might have been less conspicuous had the film been in the possession of a thundering narrative core. Yet the debut writer-director Laura Piani relies so heavily on hopeless Bridget Jones clichés — lots of pratfalls — that the surrounding locale eventually takes centre stage.
May 30, 2025
"Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" is a delightful witty and quirky film of desire, love and identity. 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 British Bookshop, Shakespeare & Co, in Paris. Invited to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England, she must confront her insecurities to finally fulfill her ambition of becoming a novelist and put an end to wasting her sentimental life. Content expanded. Camille Rutherford gets this person just right as this hopelessly clumsy individual to where anyone could relate with this character. Her desires have conflated with Austen's work to romanticize the world of her novels, leading to a crossroads where she has to let go of her idea of love and give into the cynical realism as depicted in Austen's work.
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Jun 3, 2025
Camille Rutherford plays an aspiring French writer who’s invited to a Jane Austen Residency in England. While she struggles with her creative dry spell, she meets the inevitable handsome man (Charlie Anson, who ironically was in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”). In some ways writer/director Laura Piani has designed this film to echo Austen’s style, but the gentle, genteel approach lacks any humor or punch. There are no unique or interesting characters and the plot plays out predictably from the start without any significant emotional peaks or valleys. Fans of the famed author may enjoy the placid parallels, but anyone hoping for a sweet charmer of a romance will find this rather bland.
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Production Company
- Les Films du Veyrier
- Sciapode
- Canal+
- Ciné+OCS
- Pictanovo
- Région Hauts-de-France
- Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
- La Région Île-de-France
- Indéfilms 12
- Société des Producteurs de Cinéma et de Télévision (Procirep)
- Agence Nationale de Gestion des Oeuvres Audiovisuelles (ANGOA)
- Cinéventure Développement 6
Release Date May 23, 2025
Duration 1 h 38 m
Rating R
Tagline A young woman in Paris, who dreams of becoming a successful writer and experiencing true love, may finally have her Jane Austen moment...
Awards
Marrakech International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Miami Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Astra Midseason Movie Awards
• 1 Nomination
