Love and Friendship

 

Love and Friendship 2016

• Director: Whit Stillman
• Seen by this director: The Last Days of Disco, Homicide Life on the Street (one episode)
• Based on the novella by Jane Austen
• Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Morfydd Clark, Tom Bennett, Jenn Murray, Chloë Sevigny, Stephen Fry, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards, Jemma Redgrave, James Fleet
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kate Beckinsale – Underworld etc, Absolutely Anything, The Aviator, Serendipity, The Last Days of Disco, Shooting Fish, Cold Comfort Farm, The Prince of Jylland, Much Ado about Nothing
• Tom Bennett – Breathe
• Jenn Murray – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Brooklyn, Testament of Youth, The Fades
• Chlöe Sevigny – Zodiac, Broken Flowers, Manderlay, Dogville, American Psycho, The Last Days of Disco
• Stephen Fry – Doctor Who, The Man Who Knew Infinity, The Hobbit, Twelfth Night, Sherlock Holmes/Game of Shadows, Extras, V for Vendetta, Tristram Shandy, Bright Young Things, Gosford Park, Longitude, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, Wild, Cold Comfort Farm, Jeeves and Wooster, Peter’s Friends, A Fish Called Wanda, A Handful of Dust, Black Adder
• Justin Edwards – 1917, Yesterday, Misfits, The Hollow Crown
• Jemma Redgrave – Doctor Who, Howards End
• James Fleet – The Hollow Crown, Mr Turner, The Decoy Bride, Tristram Shandy, Milk, Sense and Sensibility, Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Why? Austen
• Seen: 20 December 2020      

       Jane Austen, as we know, can be quite acerbic, here more than ever.

       Beautiful, poverty-stricken (as the wealthy see it) and manipulative Lady Susan (Beckinsale) causes deliberate havoc among several wealthy gentry families, trying to marry into money and marry her reluctant daughter (Clark) off to a charming if inane Sir James (Bennett). Complications ensue. In fact, it’s all quite difficult to follow.

       Beckinsale is good, as is the whole cast, and it’s amusing, but quite shallow and not the biting but affectionate social analysis that Austen is so good at. 

 3* of 5