Love and daggers
BY JONATHAN KANE
In Whit Stillman’s deliciously uproarious new film “Love & Friendship,” only his fifth in 25 years, we have the Jane Austen adaptation that we have always waited for.
Stillman first burst on the scene in 1990 with the remarkable “Metropolitan” about the societal mores of New York’s Upper East Side affluent preppies. Could there be a better match for Austen’s comedy of manners found in her obscure novella “Lady Susan” published in 1871 detailing the lives of the mannered upper crust in 18th century England?
With an extremely funny script by Whitman as well, the movie deserves repeated viewing as the laughs and material is delivered at crackerjack speed.
The big surprise is a terrific performance by Kate Beckinsale as the dangerous Lady Susan. Beckinsale has been lost in bad B movies for a decade but her career will certainly be righted by this effort.
A recent widow and now penniless, the story follows her machinations to find security and fortune for both herself and her daughter while bringing with her a less than stellar reputation. She has been asked to leave the Langford estate at the top of the picture with whispers of an infidelity with the married master and resettles with her brother-in-law.
There, she seeks to right her course under the distrustful eye of her sister-in-law. Her first mark is her sister-in-law’s attractive and wealthy younger brother. The real comedy comes when she tries to set her daughter up with a dimwitted lord, played to perfection by Tom Bennett. Lady Susan is beautifully described as being a “serpent in Eden’s garden.”
There follows a number of twists and turns that I don’t want to mention here, all played to perfection by an exceptional supporting cast. Funny and incredibly current, “Love & Friendship” hits all the right notes.