Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Who exactly is the intended audience for Jane Austen Wrecked My Life?

Competent in all regards yet above average in none, the feature debut of writer/director Laura Piani presents a hodgepodge of intriguing ideas and fails to commit to a single one.

That approach may appeal to nondiscerning Austen fans, for whom this watered down Austen-like story seems most suited. But if the tale of Parisian bookseller and aspiring author Agathe (Camille Rutherford, Anatomy of a Fall) figuring out her professional and romantic lives while spending a few days at the Jane Austen Residency in England is what passes for a literary homage these days, we're in trouble.

Neither her best friend Félix (Pablo Pauly, The French Dispatch) nor Residency co-host Oliver (Charlie Anson, Death on the Nile) are especially exciting or apt suitors, thanks to Piani’s underdeveloped script and the mind-numbingly obvious direction that it inspires for this love triangle. And though much physical and verbal humor is attempted, the film's comedic timing remains frustratingly off, muting the impact of what must on paper read as very funny.

In such a compromised milieu, decent cinematography and occasionally sharp performances only make so much of a difference. And why Piani opted for the same font in her opening and closing credits that Woody Allen uses in his uncorks an entirely different set of questions.

Grade: C. Rated R. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre.

(Photo: Sony Pictures Classics)