Jane Austen Wrecked My Life initially premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, but is finally releasing in the United States starting this upcoming weekend and rolling out to more theaters every weekend for the remainder of the month. Written & directed by Laura Piani, the film stars Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson, Annabelle Lengronne, Liz Crowther, Alan Fairbairn, and Lola Peploe. An aspiring author looking to get more out of life takes up a writing residency and finds herself in the sort of romantic entanglements that could come from the pages of a Jane Austen novel.

This is another film I didn’t know too much about. I think I barely saw a trailer of it once at the theater. I saw the poster, and find it interesting enough to check out. After receiving a screener for the film, I decided to check it out ASAP and review it as it seems like the film will have interesting rollout as it expands to more theaters over the next several weeks. It’s an interesting time to release a foreign romantic comedy in May as there is more severe competition, but I hope audiences will still seek out this film for how unique it truly is.

To my surprise, I had no idea the film was a French production. The film starts off with the lead actress singing in English to an English song as she dances around a book store. What I found interesting during this time is how the title credits that came up during this indicated it was a foreign production. It’s always a nice surprise going into a foreign film not knowing it. Some may be turned away as they have to keep up with the subtitles. For me, I love exploring another part of the world and learning new things through a different language. The film does cut back to English from time to time, so I think viewers will find it easy to connect with.

Lead actress Camille Rutherford commands the screen, delivering one of the most earnest & best performances of the year. She is 100% committed to any emotion that she needs to convey. There’s something about the way she presents herself visually and through the dialogue that reminds me a lot of Rachel Weisz. Maybe others will see the same thing and campaign for her to be in more stuff going forward. Regardless of the comparison, her performance here is more than enough for me to want to see more from her going forward.

While the film is being labeled as a romantic film, I never got the impression that’s what I was going to get here. Camille Rutherford plays as Agathe who finds herself in this delusional world where she can get what she has read out of Jane Austen’s novel. I get that. I’ve experienced that through film where entertainment can make us fall in love in things that are out of out of control. While Rutherford tries to put on a poker face to avoid hurt, she is secretly wanting genuine, pure love. I understood her pain with that, and as you learn more about her past, you come to realize just how human and realistic that character really is.

The film may take a while to get to where it needs to go, but once it gets there, the film succeeds at delivering comedy. Director & writer Laura Piani masters both the characterization and giving more outrageous things for the main character to go through. The setup’s pack a punch that offer shock value, and sometimes, disgust. Even when Agathe has to reiterate what has happened, her delivery is even funnier.

There’s a lot to enjoy with the film, and then there’s issues with the film that could have been explored further. There is a side romance between Agathe and another individual that I couldn’t truly understand. It was bizarre and the motives for this relationship could have been better explored. I understand that it helps this character want to find true love, but the dynamics of this relationship appeared the most unrealistic. On top of that, she also has another side fling that could have been further explored. Given what we learn about this other guy, I think the film could have leaned a lot more into that to help flesh out that story.

The film does a great job at giving character’s backstory and delivering on the comedy, but I still found the switch in tones jarring at times. At 94 minutes, the film had more opportunity to explore its story without having the tone feel as jarring as it does. The film ends on the right tone; however, I still left with more questions. Maybe that’s the point to leave you with something to think about. If that’s the case, I think the film could have been more ambiguous in certain areas.

Overall, I enjoyed Jane Austen Wrecked My Life for what it had to offer. Between Camille Rutherford’s excellent performance and Laura Piani’s sharp writing & direction, those are two names that I am now going to be closely paying attention to see what they do next. Even with the smaller of grievances that I have with the film, I also think it may be intentional to show how life isn’t perfect as much as that is what the film is conveying. Still, this is certainly one you should seek out if it’s in a theater near you.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)