Love & Friendship

Jane Austen is the most successful screenwriter in Hollywood today but she has not produced anything new in quite a while! So, just when we thought that Jane Austen was never going to produce any new screenplays, we have a new one. It is Love & Friendship which is based on an early unpublished novel, Lady Susan. Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale) is a matchmaker but unlike Emma, is only interested in matches for herself and her young daughter (Morfydd Clark). And the matches must be rich. Lady Susan will stop at nothing to achieve her twin goals and she must manipulate a large number of people. You almost need a program to keep everyone straight. In fact, there is an explanation with subtitles every time a new character is introduced. 

There is Lady Susan's American confidant (Chloe Sevigny) whose husband (Stephen Fry) is "just old enough to be formal, ungovernable and to have the gout – too old to be agreeable, and too young to die." Also, they are staying at the house of her in-laws (Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards) and her sister-in-law's brother (Xavier Samuel). The brother is in love with Lady Susan and another lord (Tom Bennett) is in love with the daughter. Lady Susan is also having an affair with a married man and his wife (Jenn Murray) is very upset about it. 

No spoilers but Lady Susan and her daughter do quite well for themselves by the end. The cast is a bunch of great British character actors in addition to the A-listers. The most entertaining character is Sir James who is in love with the daughter. He is a complete nutter and very, very happy about it. His joy is extremely infectious and the audience was laughing out loud whenever he was on the screen. The director, Whit Stillman, keeps this film moving right along and it is a very entertaining and light-hearted romp. Love & Friendship has had a lot of buzz since it was shown at Sundance this year and it has an unbelievable 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What's not to like?