
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Laura Piani
May 19, 2025
Web Exclusive
When we first meet Agathe Robinson, she’s dancing around her Paris bookshop, alone, singing along to a pop song. She seems like a free spirit—uninhibited and joyful. But when her coworker and best friend, Félix, teases her about her love life, a deeper layer emerges.
“What are you waiting for?” he asks. “Mark Darcy? Afraid he’ll never show up?” “I’m not afraid,” Agathe says. “Sure, you are. You’re scared of suffering, love affairs, one-night stands. You don’t live, you hide.” “I’m not living in the right century,” she declares.
Unlike other films centered around Jane Austen, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life doesn’t rely on tropes like a quirky ensemble mimicking Austen’s characters (The Jane Austen Book Club), a theme-park-style retreat into Regency cosplay (Austenland), or magical realism à la Lost in Austen. Instead, this film offers a quieter, more grounded homage—a modern love letter to Austen’s themes. Its heroine, Agathe, is an aspiring author clinging to the idea that literature should contain “that spark that doesn’t exist in real life,” a space for private fantasy that doesn’t demand total escape, just a good story.
When Félix sneaks a peek at her unfinished manuscript—“a little weird like you,” he teases—Agathe downplays it. But he secretly submits it to a Jane Austen-themed writing residency across the English Channel. Agathe is full of doubt. “You’ve just got imposter syndrome,” Félix tells her. “No, I don’t. I’m a genuine imposter,” she replies. Then, in a sudden moment of vulnerability and connection, Félix kisses her. She’s startled, but eventually kisses him back before setting off on her adventure.
That adventure introduces Oliver, a buttoned-up literature professor who also happens to be Jane Austen’s great-great-great-great-nephew—and a skeptic of her cultural legacy. His parents run the Austen residency, and he’s immediately at odds with Agathe’s romantic idealism. Naturally, a will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic unfolds, one that Austen fans will recognize instantly.
There’s a colorful supporting cast at the residency, but unlike Austen’s novels, the film doesn’t dwell much on them. We hear their writing in voiceovers, but Agathe largely isolates herself, unsure of her place and spiraling in self-doubt. Despite being in a space meant for creation, she hasn’t written a word. Her earlier comment to Félix—“I’m a genuine impostor”—proves all too true. She leaves him an awkward voicemail, and his silence only deepens her sense of disconnection, especially as her feelings for Oliver grow more complicated.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Jane Austen-inspired story without a ball. When Félix finally shows up, Agathe’s thrilled to have him as her dance partner, but her heart is torn—Oliver, looking every bit the brooding bachelor of an Austen novel, is still very much on her mind.
In true Austen fashion, it’s the heroine’s choices—not just romantic ones, but creative and existential—that elevate the story beyond standard rom-com fare. Agathe’s inability to write becomes symbolic of her fear of failure, her unwillingness to leap. Eventually, she confronts it.
“Have you ever had the feeling you were made for something or someone?” she asks Oliver. “That it was just a matter of luck or timing? [...] I always thought conditions had to be perfect to write, that I needed to have experienced interesting things. But that’s all bull——. At least I know that now.”
So, does Agathe get her Jane Austen happy ending? You’ll have to watch the film to find out. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life opens in theaters May 23.
Author rating: 7.5/10
Average reader rating: 10/10
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