Another delightful Jane Austen adaptation. This time of her early novella, LADY SUSAN, adapted and directed by Whit Stillman, a filmmaker I was a big fan of back in the day and am happy to see him in fine form in LOVE & FRIENDSHIP.
But the heart of the movie is Kate Beckinsale's impeccable performance in a role that requires speaking so many lines of perfectly devious but brilliantly manipulative English it's almost hard to keep up with her and her brilliance.
The rest of the cast is also up to the usual Brit-Jane-Austen-film-adaptation excellence, but two in particular dazzled me with their performances: Xavier Samuel as the prize, Reginald DeCourcy, and Tom Bennett as the rich but dimwitted fool Sir James Martin.
LOVE & FRIENDSHIP is not based on the most perfect Jane Austen book (that would be a tossup between PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, or for some Austen fans EMMA) but even her minor efforts are better than many writers' best. Same for this film, a minor but most entertaining movie experience.
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