Jane Austen a gâché ma vie

Although I was hopeful about this movie after watching the trailer, I went to the theater with not very high expectations but I am sad it still disappointed me.

I think the film's concept of writers going to a Jane Austen Residency was a great idea. However, the romance between Agathe and Oliver did not feel genuine or believable. The relationship between Agathe and Félix was just sad and there was no love there. The story had too many cliché components for me and it was too "modern" to be associated with Jane Austen. I found that none of the characters were inspiring. Agathe is very far from being a Jane Austen virtuous heroine. There were a few times that I genuinely laughed and will remember these so that is a positive. Sadly, I think one is better watching any other movie based on any Jane Austen book or even the film "Austenland" was way better than this one, and would watch instead of this one.

It's a romantic comedy set in Paris, southern England and a French vacation home in modern times. Agathe Robinson (Camille Rutherford) runs a Paris bookshop specializing in classical English literature with her best friend, Félix (Pablo Pauly). Agathe is a fragile person devoted to her literary father's memory (she survived the car accident that killed her parents) and her desire to write a novel in the manner of Jane Austen. She has written some chapters but is stuck.

Félix arranges for her to be invited to a Jane Austen Residency on property belonging to a distant descendant of the Austen family. There, she meets Oliver (Charlie Anson), a professor in contemporary literature and the son of Todd (Alan Fairbairn) and Beth (Liz Crowther), who run the Residency.

"Jane Austen a gâché ma vie" tracks Agathe's efforts at the Residency and her complex relationships with Oliver and Félix. By the end, there is a resolution.

"Jane Austen a gâché ma vie" is a slow-paced yet engaging movie. Camille Rutherford and Charlie Anson provide the most interesting and developed characters. Pablo Pauly's character is less defined. The other Residency attendees fill slots in a literary film. It's not a laugh-out-loud comedy, but the low-key approach works surprisingly well.

I thought this movie was alright. I wasn't expecting it to be primarily in French, but if that doesn't deter you, it's worth watching! I don't know if Charlie Anson has inquisitive eyes or creeper eyes, but he walks a fine line in this movie. The romance between his character, Oliver, and Agatha is kind underdeveloped. Throughout most of this movie, it just feels like something is missing. Nevertheless, an inquisitively eyed guy meets annoyed RBF woman and go! That's this movie, and it's alright, closer to being good than bad. This movie fits very well into itself, and I mean, you're expecting a fairy tale like romance to develop, but it can't because of the disposition and assumptions and chaos and trauma of Agatha, and you get that. I don't think you really feel what she's feeling, but you get it well enough to understand. This movie has the capacity to make you smile and laugh and feel contentment with its conclusion. I'd recommend a watch. Ideally, it's better suited for a streaming, date night kinda movie.

"Nameless, unremembered, acts/Of kindness and of love." Wordsworth

Around Regency England Jane Austen began to rule romantic literature with her witty deconstruction of upper-class pretentions and wise advice about how to find love and/or fortune. With the 250th anniversary of her birth, the film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a low-key Austen modernization that depicts a young book seller, Agathe (Camille Rutherford), who can't break her writer's block or find love. Yet, she has a disposition given to "acts of kindness and love."

While she has a womanizing co-worker, Felix (Pablo Pauly), who apparently loves her, she won't give herself to him out of diffidence, good sense, and plain cluelessness. He signs her up for a Jane Austen Residency at a posh estate in Britain (all shot in France), where it looks like she will fail again to be inspired to write. It's not unknown that meeting new people, including seasoned writers, helps to mitigate the block and renew a zest for life; for Agathe, it will be a slow burn, her very name suggesting "a gate."

This lyrical French rom-com, with alternating subtitles, is a treat for a cool summer evening when you are ready to be seduced by French joie de vivre and an art film that uses no CGI, relies on insights about love and writing fitting to Austen herself, and sometimes dips into old-fashioned screwball comedy or plain old-fashioned pratfalls. A bit of vaudeville, I'd say, such as when she, naked, stumbles into the room of Oliver (Charlie Anson), a distant relative of Austen and for whom romance with Agathe has potential.

There's even a formal ball, in the Austen spirit, and Agathe shines like the actress Anne Hathaway, slender and charming. Emerging into a woman less like Austen's Emma and more like Elizabeth Bennet.

All in all, not much happens in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life but a tardy romance, just right for light, summer cinema and fitting for the immortal Jane Austen on her anniversary.

Some movies you wish are shorter. Others, longer. This one belongs in the latter category. The characters are introduced, we learn a little about them, and then we move on. Too many conversations start but don't end. And always when they get interesting. We learn about a host who is in decline but still active with gardening and conversation, for example.

The acting works for the screenplay. While short, nothing is forced. Nothing is contrived, either. Everything that happens here doesn't elicit any disbelief.

However, the movie works on light hearted charm. You care about who you learn about. The laughs are all honest. And there's a ball. I hope the director's next film is longer.