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Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

 The new movie "Jane Austen Wrecked My Life" has been marketed as a rom-com but in fact is a drama; misogyny, and possibly *internalized* misogyny, leads artists to mislabel their work. 


("Girls" and "Better Things" were both dramas, but someone decided they were "less dramatic" than "Friday Night Lights" or "Mad Men." The latter set of shows was *not* marketed as a set of comedies....)

"Jane Austen" concerns Agathe, who once lost both of her parents in a car accident. Agathe works at Shakespeare and Company, in Paris, but really she's a writer. Her life seems frozen; she doesn't date, and she can't complete a writing assignment, although she has talent. Mostly, she sits at the kitchen table and watches her more vibrant sister, who can't keep track of her own bedmates. ("Agathe, this is Raphael. Or is it Gabriel? Gabriel? Raphael?")

A friend secretly submits Agathe's work to a kind of "Yaddo" program in France. Agathe wins a fellowship and enters the strange enchanted "Bread Loaf" forest that dominates the middle section of this movie. In that forest, she meets Mr. Darcy; the push and pull between these two characters is thrilling. It's with Mr. Darcy that Agathe utters the movie's greatest and most surprising line: "Can't you just go ahead and eat me out?"

This movie isn't really about romance; it's about trying to be the protagonist in your own life. Agathe is a mess, and, for that reason, she is captivating. Also, the movie uses Shakespeare and Company as a setting--and it's immediately clear that this bookstore should be the setting for *all* movies. The little "Missed Connections" corner (right behind the Wolfe/Woolf wing) is an especially exciting spot.

This one is worth seeing.
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