Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2024)

Agathe Robinson might seem like she’s living the book-lover’s dream — she works at the legendary Paris bookstore Shakespeare & Company, surrounded by literary history, with a steady routine and a deep affection for the novels of Jane Austen. But beneath the quiet charm, Agathe is restless: she’s a hopelessly clumsy but endearing type, desperately single in a dating world she finds alien, and harbouring the long-held ambition to become a writer of romance in the mold of her favourite author.

When her best friend, Félix, enters her naive first pages into a prestigious Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England — unbeknownst to her — Agathe is stunned to receive an invitation. Suddenly, her comfortable Paris life is disrupted and she embarks on a two-week stay in a country manor of quiet luxury, gardens and English heritage. There she will face the blank page, her own insecurities, and the possibility of creating the novel she’s always dreamed of.

However, the retreat turns out to be more than a mere writer’s getaway. Enter Oliver — a taciturn literature professor and descendant of Jane Austen’s family line — who runs the residency with his parents. Initially prickly and dismissive of the very author Agathe reveres, he becomes a surprising and magnetic presence. At the same time, Félix is not far behind, revealing an affection for Agathe that complicates her already fraught emotional landscape. A modern romantic triangle unfolds — but with depth.

What makes the film compelling for many is that it doesn’t simply deliver formulaic rom-com moments — it weaves in layered themes of ambition, creative block, identity and the pressure to live a life worthy of one’s dreams. There’s the aesthetic pleasure of seeing books, manuscripts, handwritten letters, travel between Paris and the English countryside, and the gentle nods to Regency-era romance all around. For fans of literature, for anyone who’s ever yearned to write, or for viewers who relish that “romantic in real life”-feel, this film offers something charming. Critics say it’s “a modern, literate and sweet riff on finding the kind of happiness that can’t be found in a book”. 

Dance sequences, mistaken identities, cross-cultural humour (the film switches between French and English) and the idyllic settings help the film feel like a gentle escapist treat. And underneath it all lies a message: the greatest story we can write is the one we live, if only we dare to overcome our own expectations. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is ideal for viewers who love romantic comedies with a literary twist, enjoy character journeys more than big spectacle, and are keen on seeing how the “wrong life” might just lead to the right story.