Love & Friendship

Motion picture history is fraught with period films, so much so that Hollywood has had a perennial love affair with them. And rightfully so since the brunt of them are typically well acted, directed and written, not to mention the production values are finely detailed. What makes "Love & Friendship" stand out from the rest of the period films is that it is written as a comedy instead of the standard dramatic fair we've come to expect.

Beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) visits to the estate of her in-laws to wait out the colourful rumours about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Whilst ensconced there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and a future for her eligible but reluctant daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark). In doing so she attracts the simultaneous attentions of the young, handsome Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), the rich and silly Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett) and the divinely handsome, but married, Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O'Mearain), complicating matters severely. And with her using her American friend Alicia Johnson (Chloe Sevigny) to assist her with these intentions, the sparks soon fly, especially with Mr. Johnson (Stephen Fry), Alicia's older husband and Charles Vernon (Justin Edwards).

Others to round out the cast are Emma Greenwell as Catherine DeCourcy Vernon, Jenn Murray as Lady Lucy Manwaring, Sophie Radermacher as Miss Maria Manwaring, Jemma Redgrave as Lady DeCourcy, Reginald's mother, James Fleet as Sir Reginald DeCourcy, Reginald Jr.'s father and Kelly Campbell as Mrs. Cross.

This was wittily directed by Whit Stillman ("Metropolitan" '90, "Barcelona" '94, "The Last Days of Disco" '98, "Damsels in Distress" '11) plus TV. I say wittily because the comedic format was witty in an extremely powder dry way. The way he was able to showcase his actors in conveying the lines in this being humorous in that powder dry way was brilliant. He hasn't a ton of work to his credit, but what he has is first rate. It was written by Stillman based on Jane Austen's novella "Lady Susan". Where Stillman excelled with direction, his writing, however structured and executed well, delved in a storyline that was a bit two-dimensional and boring. It truly took half of the 92 minute running time for this to get off the ground. Once it did, was a nice, tight little script. A storyline about the social elite's indiscretions and their cattiness about them is simply too taxing to keep one's attention for too long. Again, this was written well, and I realize this is a comedy, albeit dry, but couldn't the source been one that covered another subject matter still keeping the comedic format? Certainly if Stillman wrote on another subject, Jane Austen's novella obviously wouldn't have been the original source for the film, but would that actually suffice? This could garner some Oscar nods come that time for costumes, production design, cinematography and even acting for Beckinsale. Time will tell.

Period films are typically those that attract different types of audiences, given the star power and or storyline. With this, the acting was amazing, however the storyline was simply about a subject that one could cover in half the time, otherwise it just gets too bogged down.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                   Rated: PG                                   92mins.