Dir/Wri: Laura Piani. France. 2024. 94mins | Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson, Annabelle Lengronne
An odd little film that looks like it’s been made for TV the 1980s and with characters to match the slightly retro feel. If Inspector Barnaby or Morse suddenly appeared on set they wouldn’t be out of place yet there’s a certain charm to this literary romcom with its engaging cast of Camille Rutherford and Charlie Anson whose onscreen characters are both old-fashioned in style yet vaguely avant-garde in their ideology.
Laura Piani’s first feature is purportedly set in the English countryside with the while cliffs of Hampshire very much in evidence. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is actually mostly filmed in France where Rutherford’s Agathe says goodbye to her job in a secondhand bookshop and her close friend and colleague Felix (Pauly) after announcing a desire to explore a creative writing residency.
So Agathe arrives in England on the cross channel ferry and is promptly collected by the tweedy Oliver (Anson) in an awkward encounter that culminates in his old sports car breaking down forcing the strange bedfellows to spend an uncomfortable night together in the New Forest. Onwards to the bucolic rose-strewn manor, home of the ‘Jane Austen Residency’ where the diffident writer is met by the warm smile of Liz Crowther speaking perfect French and announcing herself as the chatelaine of said writing salon.
Camille Rutherford rises to the occasion in an assortment of baggy jeans and old jumpers. Oliver tries to look assured, proudly announcing his literary credentials, as the actual ‘great-great-great-great-nephew’ of Jane Austen. The two then retire to adjoining bedrooms, with Agathe bursting into Oliver’s boudoir, mistaking it to be her ensuite bathroom. Hilariously, she’s stripped naked for a shower.
Clearly a disillusioned romantic, Agathe never imagines that Oliver could be secretly holding a candle for her (under his twill trousers). At this point not clear whether Pauly and her are an item or not. But the ‘ingenus’ in the shape of Agathe and Oliver, continue to give each other a wide berth like bashful teenagers, Agathe looking mostly gauche around the place, and Oliver with a permanent frown to cover up his growing romantic fascination with the French girl. Piani’s direction is certainly offbeat, but the experienced cast manage to hold it all together despite the wobbly tonal shifts from comedy, to slapstick to buttoned-up romantic drama.
Oliver finally comes into his own, after a tentative start, when Felix shows up to test the romantic waters. Although Agathe doesn’t foster a burning desire for either of them, indeed she freely admits to not having had sex for two years. So Austen’s romantic compulsion – indeed prerequisite – to choose a suitable beau rather falls by the roadside as a plot point, given the lack of financial necessity to tie the knot in this day and age.
That all said, this is a rather enjoyable romp largely because of Rutherford and Anson, who have absolutely no onscreen chemistry whatsoever, and that provides the ultimate comedy element. @MeredithTaylor
NOW ON RELEASE IN FRANCE | TIFF 2024