by Hudson Moura
In Jane Austen a Gâché ma Vie (Jane Austen Wrecked My Life), Laura Piani crafts a tender, bilingual romantic comedy that delicately bridges two cultures, two languages, and two emotional landscapes. At its center is Agathe, a shy and introspective young Parisian bookseller whose passion for Jane Austen’s novels becomes both a refuge and a quiet prison. Through her, Piani offers not a parody of Austen’s world, but an introspective, literary homage—imbued with wit, vulnerability, and a distinctly French sensibility.
What sets this film apart from conventional romantic comedies is its refusal to rely on formula. Instead, it lingers in moments of interiority: silences, glances, pages half-written and thoughts left unsaid. Agathe is no confident heroine in search of love—she’s more of a literary snail, tentatively emerging from her shell, burdened by insecurities, false starts, and a longing she’s not yet able to articulate. Austen becomes a kind of measuring stick for her disappointments and expectations—of romance, of ambition, of selfhood.
The film slips effortlessly between French and English, Paris and the English countryside, irony and sincerity, capturing the tensions between cultures without exaggeration. It evokes a world where Austen’s influence is both literary and emotional—a blueprint for hope, but also a source of pressure. For Agathe, who dreams of writing but cannot move past her own self-doubt, Austen’s voice is both companion and ghost. In one revealing moment, Agathe tells her sister, “Tu te souviens de ce que disait papa ? La littérature est le seul remède contre le désordre phénoménal de la pensée des sentiments.” It’s a line that encapsulates the film’s emotional thesis: literature not as escape, but as a fragile attempt to bring coherence to internal chaos.
Yet despite its introspective tone, the film never loses the levity that defines the genre. There’s a lightness to the direction, a sweetness to the performances, and an emotional clarity that makes even its quietest moments resonate. Jane Austen a Gâché ma Vie is not an American melodrama or a British costume piece. It’s a modest, poignant, and refreshingly modern reimagining of the romantic comedy—one that explores not only love, but the fear of writing, of speaking, of becoming. A film for romantics, dreamers, and readers alike. 
(4/5)