Love & Friendship

Expectations run high whenever Jane Austen comes to the big screen. Although Love & Friendship remains true to Lady Susan (a novella Austen wrote as a teenager but never saw published in her lifetime), moviegoers must brace themselves for an atypical Austen main character.

At the story’s center is the scheming and manipulative Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale), spinning a web of deceit. Recently widowed and out of funds, she seeks matches for herself and her teenage daughter, Frederica, while juggling single and married paramours. (The PG-rated film steers clear of suggestive visuals and language.) Except for the young and naïve Reginald (Xavier Samuel), her late husband’s relatives see right through her. They try to extract Reginald from Lady Susan’s entanglements, and, out of pity, block her scheme to pair Frederica with the wealthy but slow-witted Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett).

Viewers might need most of the film’s brief 90 minutes to sort out its many characters. And Austen fans won’t be blown away: Plagued by repeated punchlines, Love & Friendship weighs in a couple of notches below the comic genius of (the real) Pride and Prejudice. Even so, Love & Friendship exhibits Austen’s flair for snappy dialogue and buffoonish characters. Sir James is a real peach.

“Tiny green balls!” Sir James exclaims at dinner, pushing his plate’s contents around with a knife. “Good tasting! What are they called?” (“Peas,” Reginald groans.)

The film rewards viewers with sumptuous sets and elegant costumes. But Austen, known through fitting finales to reward chaste characters and punish lascivious ones, shows little sign of that later formula in this story. Still, its Christian tone rings through in four lively discussions of the Ten Commandments. And there’s no mistaking Austen’s faith when Reginald corrects Lady Susan for suggesting his father fears his demise.

“Father is a Christian,” Reginald explains, “for whom death is neither cold nor the end.”