Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 23, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Next Best PictureNadia DalimonteMar 25, 2026
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life feels destined to become a quintessential Austen-adjacent classic. The film lives up to its playful title with a thoughtful blend of the author’s sense and sensibility. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMay 23, 2025
There’s a salve-like quality to Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a balm for any battered romantic’s soul. It may be utter fantasy, but it’s the kind of escape you’ll want to revisit again and again, like a favorite Austen novel. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 14, 2025
The film is at once old-fashioned and refreshingly, realistically up to date in its take on modern courtship. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJun 12, 2025
The film does occasionally struggle with getting England right. We are always aware that this is a French film-maker looking through the window at the crumpets on their doilies. But there is a mischievous intelligence at work that complements the embrace of sometimes broad misunderstandings. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMay 30, 2025
The true draw in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is Agathe, a compelling protagonist whose passion for literature and love keeps us sufficiently engaged. Read full review
80
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 23, 2025
What rescues the movie from being mere flimsy fun is Rutherford’s performance. She gives Agathe’s waywardness a gravity, a hint of darkness. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 23, 2025
Agathe is concave in both posture and spirit, but she feels right for this muted world of amorous contemplation, of long, uncertain glances met by equally long, equally uncertain glances. By the end, romance in the abstract becomes something much more real — and we can’t help but fall for all these characters ourselves. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonMay 22, 2025
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is both pleasantly diverting and sneakily wise. Read full review
80
Screen RantAbigail StevensMay 18, 2025
What could be a basic struggling artist's journey of self-discovery and inspiration has many nuances and idiosyncrasies, making for a thoroughly off-the-beaten-path narrative that provokes thought despite some minor loose threads. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 20, 2025
Modestly scoped, sometimes sweetly dopey, and sincerely moving, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a charmer. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comJourdain SearlesMay 30, 2025
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a romantic comedy for the quiet, thoughtful lovers who yearn for the sincerity of the past. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 28, 2025
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a gentle treat, sure to leave any book-loving viewer happy. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 22, 2025
The story, held at well-mannered arm’s length by Piani, never gets too messy; even Agathe’s deepest psychological issues — a phobia that makes travel difficult and, later, the explanation of its traumatic roots — are handled with efficient, unfailingly discrete politesse. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 22, 2025
Piani did the right thing in casting Rutherford, whose physical embodiment of Agathe suggests a tall, gangly, striking woman trying not to be seen. The actress leans into the character’s unsettled, often sullen side, though not at the expense of the comic tropes. Read full review
75
Original-CinKaren GordonMay 21, 2025
Although the film gets the mood and feeling right, the story is maddeningly spotty. Its arrow is in the bow, but it feels like it’s one rewrite away from neatly hitting the mark. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMay 20, 2025
Piani has constructed a rare gem in “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” which manages to be literary without being pretentious. Read full review
75
IndieWireKate ErblandMay 20, 2025
Austen fans might balk a bit at how much this one goes off-script into its own territory, but the spirit of Austen runs deep. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleLily JaniakMay 19, 2025
The formula persists two centuries after Austen perfected it because it’s aspirational and satisfying at the same time: We want it to wreck our own lives, too. It’s durable precisely because it’s pliable, offering storytellers a template in which to explore their own era’s mores and ideals, questions and anxieties. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Saffron MaeveMay 22, 2025
Lamenting the loss of the arthouse rom-com often feels like pleading for dessert. Thankfully, Piani’s debut is sweet enough to nurse the craving. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 2, 2025
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is too low-key for its own good and could have benefitted from a stronger connection to the titular author than the finished product delivers. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 1, 2025
It’s just French enough to feel novel, after decades of Austen adaptations, biographies and the like, a “fresh take” that isn’t all that but does no shame to its titular novelist and the iconic bookseller who figures she “wrecked my life.” Read full review
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeJun 11, 2025
The comedy takes a bit of an IQ dip when the film crosses the Channel and the dialogue switches to English. Still, it glides along on Rutherford’s performance as Agathe – witty, warm, keenly observant, a bit clumsy and Bridget Jones-ish, but never, not even for a moment, cringy. Read full review
60
Screen DailyBoyd van HoeijMay 14, 2025
The reason it still mostly works is because the actors play it straight, with Rutherford displaying a sense of directness that compensates for the occasionally wobbly tonal shifts. The few instances of slapstick, however, are always more awkward than hilarious. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesMay 22, 2025
Ms. Piani is too scattershot a storyteller for the eventual, inevitable romance to feel earned. Read full review
50
ColliderTherese LacsonMay 21, 2025
Despite beautiful shots and strong performances in the film, what ultimately comes up lacking is the story. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherJun 12, 2025
All this is window dressing that might have been less conspicuous had the film been in the possession of a thundering narrative core. Yet the debut writer-director Laura Piani relies so heavily on hopeless Bridget Jones clichés — lots of pratfalls — that the surrounding locale eventually takes centre stage. Read full review
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