Great Kate heads stellar cast
Love & Friendship (G) 93 mins ★★★★
I can’t remember the last time I saw a G-rated movie (even children’s movies nowadays come with Parental Guidance warnings) but you simply mustn’t be put off – in fact, Whit Stillman’s astonishing adaptation of Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan is one of the cleverest and most entertaining cinema trips you’ll make all year.
Instantly charming in its tonguein-cheek overacting, the story’s action takes off at an almighty pace as the widowed Lady Susan Vernon (a remarkable Kate Beckinsale in probably her finest performance ever) breezes into people’s lives on the hunt for a new husband and a worthy match for her daughter.
Of course, this being the 19th century, the family and friends upon whom she imposes hide their alarm and distrust behind tight smiles and stiff embraces of conditional welcome. Cue an utterly beguiling romp with foppish men and long-suffering wives dodging the slings and arrows of Lady Susan’s eviscerating wit.
Austen’s ground-breaking heroine is manipulative, selfcentred and seemingly oblivious to the irony of her words: ‘‘How delightful it would be to humble the pride of these pompous De Courcys,’’ she sneers about a family so lacking in pomposity we are immediately on alert. She commiserates with her only friend and confidante, the American (gasp!) Alicia Johnson (played by Stillman regular Chloe Sevigny), whose husband is ‘‘too old to be governable; too young to die’’. For a character in a period piece, Lady Susan is frankly outrageous – and the audience loves every vicarious moment of her.
From the opening scene on, the film is very chatty – you must listen carefully to catch the incessant wit and beautiful eloquence (all ‘‘astonishing’’ and ‘‘remarkable’’). But where the film outdoes itself is in the performances. Young Australian Xavier Samuel acquits himself tremendously for a lad with Twilight and a shark horror on his CV, while oft-seen, but littleknown Tom Bennett steals every scene as the indescribable Sir James Martin (the film would be worth a second viewing for his moments alone).
For an object lesson in how not to behave, Love & Friendship cannot be bettered.