Love & Friendship

"Love And Friendship" is not classified as a comedy but that's the only way it succeeds. Our website calls it a drama/romance but those labels don't capture the essence of Jane Austen's late 18th century novella, gorgeously filmed and impeccably acted by a predominantly British cast.

In a nutshell; Lady Susan is recently widowed and now relies on the kindness of friends and relatives for shelter as she is very short of money. So she bounces from estate to estate endearing herself to the menfolk and is notorious among the ladies. Lady Susan is very beautiful and flirtatious; a husband is needed to achieve stability as well as position, not to mention a reliable source of income (We have to infer much of this information from the plot; Lady Susan is not a flamboyant character, like Auntie Mame).

"Love And Friendship" sports first class production values as well as a sophisticated literary background. Kate Beckinsale is good as Lady Susan and the rest of the cast is even better. Midway through the film gets a needed boost from Tom Bennett, who plays the oafish Sir James Martin. He is an oasis in the midst of the arid screenplay, which cries for more of his bumbling presence.

This is a movie for grownups in a landscape festooned with juvenile entertainment. It is difficult to find fault with any part of this handsomely mounted production which is graced by Jane Austen's relentlessly clever dialogue and the skilled direction of Whit Stillman ("Metropolitan", "The Last Days Of Disco"). Well done all around despite the bland storyline.

This film tells the story of a widow in the high society, who is intelligent in the world of courting. She does everything in her power to ensure that she and her daughter marries well.

It is evident that a lot of thought has been put into the film. I seldom finds films that introduce characters by name and background on the screen at the beginning, and I find that very useful because of the number of characters and the complicated social hierarchy involved. The dialogs are wonderfully elegant, and there are times in the film wheni wish  I could speak like that. The costumes are beautiful, the hats are fabulous, and the constantly changing hairstyles of Lady Susan all contribute to an enjoyable cinematic experience.

There's something very satisfying about a period piece that actually feels like a film that lives in another time and place. While Love & Friendship certainly isn't the thinker or entertainer that most of the films released in May, it has its fair share of laughs and uses its gorgeous locales and famous source material to its benefit as much as it can.

I don't consider myself the avid Jane Austen reader or fan of the media adaptations. In fact, I usually don't care for them much at all, but with rave reviews and a heavier reliance on comedy than romance, I decided to give Love & Friendship a shot. For the most part, it's an enjoyable film. I don't know how closely the writers attempted to stay to Austen's work, but one of the main issues to the film is the overabundance of characters. We are introduced to almost every single character within the first few minutes via opening credits, and it became overwhelming as a viewer.

I caught on to the characters after a while, but trying to remember everyone's names was quite the challenge, especially when they all talk, dress, and look relatively the same. With that said, it's far and away Kate Beckinsale's film as she plays the infamous Lady Susan Vernon. The story mainly focuses on Vernon's attempt to give her daughter and herself a new match, after being recently widowed. If not for anything else, Love & Friendship is entertaining just to purely watch Lady Susan manipulate just about everyone she crosses. The beauty being that you don't truly know if she's being manipulative or sincere, which is why the abundance of characters actually works in the film's favor.

Distracting the audience with new characters scene to scene keeps our attention away from what Susan is up to, hence surprising us with the next reveal. I can't say I was all that invested in the story itself, as it sometimes falls under the clichéd-romantic genre, but watching Beckinsale and the others have fun with the source material proved to be worth a viewing.

I also appreciated the film's keen sense of humor at just the right moments. There are moments when the comedy could steer towards over-the-top, but veteran director Whit Stillman kept it from getting out of hand. In all, if you're into Jane Austen or period piece romantic dramas in general, Love & Friendship is probably for you. If not, perhaps the humor and performances can reel you in.

+Timely humor

+Fun performances

+Witty writing

-A lot of characters can muddle the plot at times

7.0/10

A scheming widow flees to the English countryside to settle the marriage prospects of her family.

Some superb characters and performances in a patchy production. Lady Susan has an interesting and sophisticated view of life, which is delivered in fine style by the lead actress: after furiously rebuking a gent for daring to approach her, she breezily excuses herself - "Of course I know him! I would never address a stranger in such fashion." But even more enjoyable is the unsquashable dunderhead, Sir James - the director makes great demands with extended scenes in which it must have been difficult to sustain the delicate humour, but the actor pulls it off brilliantly. Also a lovely scene with the de Courcy grandparents, as he tries to read her a letter.

On the debit side, the American exile isn't quite right - a great actress for close-ups, but here (as usual) she's just a sidekick, and can't bring the proper deviousness to her role. And the scene with her husband felt like the actors weren't sure it was working. And, in general, the camera or editing often seems misplaced in two-shots and over the shoulders.

There are big problems with the story, and about halfway through I was puzzled by a couple of scenes that seemed to refer to ghost events I didn't recall. And the resolution is frivolous, a disappointment after Lady Susan's musings on loyalty and emotion. I understand this is an early work by the great novelist, but I don't see why the story couldn't have been gussied up in the screenplay.

Another thing - clearly a great deal of compression in the writing and editing, as the opening titles hit us with a tidal wave of character intros, with the following scene an extreme example of entering late and leaving early. Fine, but the pace over the first ten minutes had me holding on by my fingernails as I tried to figure out what was happening to whom. It felt like everyone was frantic with worry over the slim running time.

The Irish locations are just right for the Georgian period. Music all chamber orchestra Baroque. Photography is fine, but doesn't balance out the threadbare direction and editing.

Overall: golden threads in a tattered rag.

Here's my beef with Love and Friendship. They told the story. Emphasis on told. Not sure if they didn't know how to build the character backgrounds and cultural implications into an hour and a half-ish flick or what. It's like they assumed you understood some things but, needed to explain the bulk of the story via Lady Susan. Instead of building the story via scenes and acting and playing out the idea and letting the audience think and work out the connections....leave a little to figure out if you got it right or not, Beckinsale's character basically narrarated everything that was going on. As we walked out, I said to my wife, Downton Abbey left a pretty high bar for period pieces. The Jane Austin story of relationships and status and morality was interesting enough. The presentation just plain left it all in the book. You read a book, and you know you're reading a book. Director Stillman just had the book read to us by actors. It wasn't as interesting as that may sound either. I don't know if it was budget over directing but, this was a disappointing movie-fication of a book. Even the period environment was stumbling and stiff. Oh yeah, a hand maiden should do this. Oh yeah, the footman or, doorman or butler would do this. It came across as a poorly staged amateur play, where there was no fluidity. Other reviews said you'd be laughing out loud. Maybe a few snickers and giggles. I was glad it was only 90-ish minutes. If you're coming to this because Downton Abbey made you a fan of that period of England, I'm sorry to tell you, you won't be satisfied by Love and Friendship.