Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2025): Yay – A New Rom-Com !!

by Len Weiler

The big question the new film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life poses is not whether the protagonist’s life
has been wrecked via Austen’s novels or otherwise.  No, the question is whether there’s still life in the rom-com, a once prominent film genre.  [Short answer: well, this one's good.]

        Is the Rom-Com Dead? asked Rolling Stone last December 2024. 

        Rom-Coms … Why Do I Miss Them So Much? bemoaned Wesley Morris in the NYTimes back in April 2019.   

Formerly a Hollywood mainstay, romantic comedies have become a rarity – their consistent decline evident since at least the turn of the 21st century. Take 2024 for instance. Of the 100 top-grossing motion pictures last year, just two were rom-coms: Anyone But You in 35th place and Fly Me to the Moon in 67th place. Compare 1999 when sixteen (16!) rom-coms made the top 100, including Runaway Bride - 9th, Notting Hill - 12th, and Shakespeare In Love - 21st.   [Note: You’ve Got Mail was in 55th place – but only because it was released in mid-December of the prior year; combining the data from the last two weeks of ’98 with the ‘99 box office numbers jumps that film to 13th place - putting four rom-coms in the top 25 films of 1999.]

The reasons given for the decline of romantic comedies are varied, but here are three: (a) the number of movie theaters and screens has declined sharply, especially since covid,  (b) superhero films and other fantasy CGI-heavy spectacles along with animated kid’s movies have increasingly monopolized the remaining theater screens and (3) the explosive growth of opportunities to watch movies and other original content at home on an ever increasing number of streaming platforms has dampened the viewing public’s incentive for going out movies.

But that does not mean we wouldn’t enjoy more quality rom-coms. I sure would! Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a step in the right direction. This is the first feature-length film for French writer - director Laura Piani, a film and TV scriptwriter  who has long dreamed of making her own romantic comedy. In her notes to this movie, she says, “I wanted to draw the portrait of a quirky woman, so strongly convinced that she does not fit into society that she wishes she was born centuries ago in the world of her favorite novels.” 

Agathe, a charming, if a bit clumsy, young French woman who has been working for several years at the venerable English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, is such a woman, and she is at the center Piani’s film. She loves books, especially 19th century romantic novels,  particularly Jane Austen’s, and most especially Sense and Sensibility.  She loses herself a bit too much in these works, as she acknowledges, and is “desperately single.”  There have been no Darcys to sweep her off her feet. Agathe is convincingly and endearingly played by Camille Rutherford [Mary, Queen of Scots (2013)].

Agathe’s co-worker and best friend is charming, good-natured Felix (Pablo Pauly). She and Felix are buddies, not lovers, but there is an undercurrent of sexual tension there that Felix gets, but Agathe sublimates. In a twist of fate, Agathe gets accepted into an elite writing program in the UK called the Jane Austen Residency. Although she's reluctant, Felix convinces her to go and even takes her to the cross-channel ferry – where they kiss – like, for real - and to her surprise Agathe feels a spark.  

On the British side, Agathe is picked up by a handsome but aloof and diffident fellow named Oliver (Charlie Anson), who claims to be the great, great, great, great nephew of Agathe’s idol. He drives her to the Austen home – a journey that is not without comic mishap.  Although they do not hit it off at all, we sense a kind of chemistry between these two. Is there an incipient romantic triangle here? I’m not saying, but if you know the rules and trajectories of the genre, you can surely guess.

Here's the thing about a good rom-com: it’s not the overarching contour of the plot that bring enjoyment (we know how that works) but the details – the various, oft-times quirky secondary characters inhabiting the tale, the little twists, complications and revelations within the story, the wit and the intelligence of the writing, the quality of the actors and their performances, our attraction to their characters and our belief in their attraction to each other. Piani says that she “wanted to fully embrace the codes [of the rom-com] without reinventing the genre.”  But hers is not another story where the heroine is “saved by the man.” She must find her own redemption. Piani again: “Agathe eventually falls in love with the right man only after she has proved to herself that she is able to write and to exist by herself.”   

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life turns out to be a sweet, witty, charming little movie. It meets all the criteria set forth in the previous paragraph: engaging, credible leads, odd and amusing supporting characters, plenty of unexpected plot turns, smart frequently humorous dialogue, strong performances, and appealing leads. The photography and settings, particularly at the (fictional) Jane Austen Residency, are quite lovely. Unfamiliarity with Jane Austen is no handicap at all to one’s enjoyment of this picture, although the Austen references will surely appeal to fans of her work.  While it's a French film, because much of the story is set in England, a significant portion of the dialogue is in English.  The rest is nicely  subtitled.  

This film may not win any awards for best motion picture of the year,  but it  certainly will be on my list for most appealing. It is a little gem. 

1 hour 38 minutes

Grade:  B+

Opens in select cities beginning on Friday May 23, 2025. To find dates and a theater in your city or region click HERE then click the “Get Tickets” button

In the SF Bay Area:

Opening Friday May 23 at AMC Metreon 16 in SF, Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley, Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and Cinemark Century Downtown in Redwood City. 

Opens May 30  at Tower Theatre in Sacramento, AMC Mercado 20 in Santa Clara, Cinemark Century Downtown in Pleasant Hill, Rialto Sebastopol in Sebastopol, and Regal Edwards in Fairfield.