Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Laura Piani in a debut film directs “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.” The film is gentle and charming, if ever predictable. It does have quirk and character and is boosted by an excellent performance by Camille Rutherford. 

Agathe (Camille Rutherford) is a dedicated if solitary bookseller who works at Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Her books are her friends. Agathe has one close human friend Felix (Pablo Pauly) who resembles a red-haired muppet. He convinces her to try for a writer’s retreat at a Jane Austen style cottage in rural France.

On the ferry, she meets Oliver (Charlie Anson), a formal very, very distant relative of Jane Austen, a dashing professor with a piercing stare. The two keep polite and distant at least for the time being. There is a bit of cliché heart-hopping and hopes between the Austen fans, but in general this has an aura of Austen without being a rip off of a classic. For comic relief, there is a senior of the manor frolicking nude in the morning yard.

On the pensive side, there is a fine poem near the end and the film stresses the thoughtful magic of books upon the viewer.

While Oliver carries his arched stare nearly throughout the entire film and one can discern the ending leagues away, the story is a pleasant respite from Literature finals. As a kind of “Bridget Jones’ Diary” meets “Pride and Prejudice” its light touch is certain to relieve any eyestrain from your strenuous bildungsroman.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com