We often form unintentional relationships with artists, which can either be liberating or constricting, depending on how one views this one-way companionship. In the case of certain authors – particularly those who have entered the hallowed canon of the medium – the parasocial relationship can usually be somewhat amusing and unsettling, based on the extent to which someone sees themselves in a writer’s work. This is where Laura Piani begins to build the narrative that eventually becomes Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (French: Jane Austen a gâché ma vie), a charming comedy that follows Agathe, a Franco-British bookstore employee and struggling writer who is dealing with writer’s block. After a colleague decides to submit Agathe to the Jane Austen Residency (an elite two-week excursion to the esteemed author’s historical home, where they are given the chance to write in the surroundings that inspired some of the greatest works of Romantic literature in history), Agathe finds herself drawn into her own version of an Austen novel, these two weeks being spent surrounded by eccentric characters, hilarious mishaps and a complex romance or two that causes our protagonist to reflect on her own choices and desires. A film that is mostly quite trivial and certainly about as deep as a puddle, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is nonetheless a lot of fun, a quirky comedy about unexpected connections and life’s tendency to surprise us in ways that we can never anticipate, which is all that it promised and ultimately is able to deliver. A simple film that doesn’t dare to over-exert itself beyond its capabilities, but which still offers something quite entertaining, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life makes its intentions very clear from the start, leading to a story that is designed for a very particular kind of viewer, who will undoubtedly find a lot of value in what this film has to say about certain very common ideas.

In an era where every genre is populated by people who believe that a film needs to be subversive and carry layers of deeper meaning in order to be effective, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life dares to be the outlier insofar as it makes its intentions abundantly clear from the start, and never feels compelled to conceal it behind allegory, nor does it have any interest in leading viewers down paths that don’t lead anywhere valuable. The themes Piani uses to construct this film are quite simple – it’s a story about someone rekindling her love for literature when surrounding herself with people that share her enthusiasm, but also begin to reflect characters from the novels she adores. This is not the first time we’ve seen a film use the narrative device of introducing us to a character obsessed with a particular artform which eventually becomes mirrored in her daily interactions – it’s not even the first instance of a film in which we find parallels being built between a protagonist and characters in an Austen novel, which turns out to be quite a common approach, and something that Piani acknowledges without indicating her desire to redefine the genre in any way. Through this, we find the usual subjects being discussed – the enemies-to-lovers arc that is often the central theme of many Romantic novels, the feeling of discovering yourself in enchanting new surroundings, forging connections with unexpected people and, perhaps most compelling of all, how someone learns about herself through embracing the unknown and confronting the fears that she has kept bottled up for decades. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is certainly very easygoing as far as thematic content goes, but it’s impossible to neglect the genuine charm that comes with such a simple, evocative story that is done well, which is exactly what we find to be the most significant merit of this film.

From this simple approach, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life can flourish into something genuinely quite charming, which it does through exploring romance in a way that is both accessible and familiar. Based on its themes and overall approach to the subject matter, it’s quite obvious what this film was aiming to achieve, and it’s relatively easy to determine who will enjoy this film. This is designed for people who are willing to abandon all logic and suspend disbelief in favour of spending ninety minutes in a state of completely absurd, unrealistic euphoria that comes with a romantic comedy in which everything fits together neatly, and all the tension emerges from perfect coincidences, rather than any real stakes. Those seeking realism should swiftly move in the opposite direction, since just about every unrealistic trope we associate with the romantic comedy genre is embedded somewhere in this film. Storylines that meander through every conceivable configuration, situations that are easily resolved by a character simply being in the right place at the right time, encounters and coincidences that are completely illogical in usual circumstances, but make perfect sense in the context of this film. It’s wildly offbeat storytelling that would be frustrating if the overall experience wasn’t so wonderfully engaging – it peddles the usual emotions that we would expect, and the execution itself is relatively pedestrian, but it sells the concept well enough to get away with these peculiar decisions, leading to a film that is far more compelling than we would expect. However, it does get to a point where it becomes slightly too heavy-handed in its delivery of the core ideas, where the twee, trivial nature never evolves to the point of saying anything interesting, which can be slightly frustrating when it comes to establishing key elements of the narrative.

Something that does help bind Jane Austen Wrecked My Life together are the performances, which are quite good for the most part. Camille Rutherford is not the first person we imagine to lead a bubbly romantic comedy, considering she has often rooted herself in more serious characters in period pieces and arthouse projects. While nothing she does here is particularly revelatory, she does prove that all it takes to lead such a film is charm and the willingness to embrace the absurdity that is inherent to the narrative, something that the film does spend a lot of time exploring through her performance. Rutherford is very fun in the film and does her best to instill the character of Agathe with layers that would not have been there with a less-skilled performer at the helm. Much like the character she is playing, Rutherford is a blend of French and English, which only allows her to embrace the bilingual nature of the story (most of the dialogue is in French, but there’s a significant amount of English, considering it takes place in the English countryside for most of the story), and gives her the chance to develop different aspects of the character. The rest of the cast is solid but not always as consistent – Annabelle Lengronne is delightful as her friend, but she is given very little to do, while veterans Liz Crowther and Alan Fairbairn hold court as the respectable older members of the cast, adding nuances that can only come from decades of experience. The only truly questionable performance comes from Charlie Anson, who is positioned as a character so clearly modelled after the likes of Hugh Grant and Colin Firth that it sometimes feels like an outright parody (which doesn’t appear to be intentional), his vacant expression and often stilted manner of acting feeling oddly out of place – which makes sense considering most of the cast is comprised of people who have done a decent amount of dramatic work. Nevertheless, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is still strong enough, with good characterisation and a generally charming approach that feels much more nuanced than we may have expected.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a film that does exactly what we expect with its premise, and not anything more. As a result, it is quite obvious and doesn’t do anything particularly revolutionary – but it is important to note that it never claimed to be an attempt at subversion or redefining the genre. In fact, this is a film that shows so much reverence to the romantic comedy genre that those who are inherently opposed to these kinds of films will probably find this to be unbearable. For the rest of us, the film is genuinely lovely – it doesn’t venture into any new territory, and the overall experience is better described as a series of lovable moments rather than a fully cohesive storyline, but that fits in perfectly with the nature of the film and what it is trying to achieve. It’s an effervescent, upbeat romantic comedy about someone finding themselves when they least expect it, and while it’s nothing revolutionary, it serves a solid purpose, and proves to be very entertaining, a lovely diversion more than anything that will challenge or provoke. Heartwarming and funny, filled with great performances, a sense of offbeat chaos and a generally charming tone that doesn’t overdo the emotions (but it still could have been slightly tweaked to be less predictable), and actively tries to give us something memorable, even if it can be quite derivative. Not a film that will change how we view the subject matter or the genre, but still a wonderfully endearing time in itself, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life does exactly what we would expect, proving to be a solid comedy with a big heart and a genuine amount of emotion for its characters and the audience.