It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen has inspired more romcoms than any other author – and nearly all of them feature a modern take on an Austen protagonist, a new Lizzie Bennet or Emma Woodhouse. But this funny and smart French comedy instead gives us a 21st-century Jane Austen. British-French actor Camille Rutherford is terrific as Agathe, an aspiring novelist working in a Paris bookshop who wins a place on a Jane Austen writing retreat run by the author’s descendants.
“I’m not living in the right century!” Agathe wails to her best friend and colleague Félix (Pablo Pauly). She’s not into dating apps (“I don’t want Uber sex!”). But she does have chemistry with Félix (he’s a player, but not at Wickham levels of caddishness), and it’s Félix who secretly submits Agathe’s writing to a Jane Austen society. 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.
