To date this year there has been a paucity of any semblance of a great movie.
Suffice it to say Love And Friendship isn't amongst the greats. My wife and I caught an afternoon matinee showing of this film yesterday. Based on the Jane Austen's novel Lady Susan
MRQE rating was a solid 84%presumably for the acting which is terrific. The film is short at 94 minutes and is typical Jane Austen humor set in the 18th century. It is packed with 94 minutes of dialog which is acted superbly. Having said that it wasn't a film that you leave the theater talking about. Some very funny lines but these seemed to be few and far between.
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell, Tom Bennett, Stephen Fry
Director: Whit Stillman
Writer: Whit Stillman
Rating: PG
Running Time: 94 min.
Synopsis: (From MRQE.com
Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the machinations of a beautiful widow, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), who, while waiting for social chatter about a personal indiscretion to pass, takes up temporary residence at her in-laws' estate. While there, the intelligent, flirtatious, and amusingly egotistical Lady Vernon is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica—and herself too, naturally. She enlists the assistance of her old friend Alicia (Chloë Sevigny), but two particularly handsome suitors (Xavier Samuel and Tom Bennett) complicate her orchestrations. Adapting Jane Austen's unpublished early novella Lady Susan, Whit Stillman returns to the Sundance Film Festival (where his Metropolitan premiered in 1990) in top form with his latest comedy of manners. Kate Beckinsale excels in her role as the deliciously devious Lady Vernon and delivers each line with relish. With exquisite period detail and a script teeming with bon mots and witty dialogue, Love & Friendship is a rare—and rarified—treat
Suffice it to say Love And Friendship isn't amongst the greats. My wife and I caught an afternoon matinee showing of this film yesterday. Based on the Jane Austen's novel Lady Susan
MRQE rating was a solid 84%presumably for the acting which is terrific. The film is short at 94 minutes and is typical Jane Austen humor set in the 18th century. It is packed with 94 minutes of dialog which is acted superbly. Having said that it wasn't a film that you leave the theater talking about. Some very funny lines but these seemed to be few and far between.
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell, Tom Bennett, Stephen Fry
Director: Whit Stillman
Writer: Whit Stillman
Rating: PG
Running Time: 94 min.
Synopsis: (From MRQE.com
Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the machinations of a beautiful widow, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), who, while waiting for social chatter about a personal indiscretion to pass, takes up temporary residence at her in-laws' estate. While there, the intelligent, flirtatious, and amusingly egotistical Lady Vernon is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica—and herself too, naturally. She enlists the assistance of her old friend Alicia (Chloë Sevigny), but two particularly handsome suitors (Xavier Samuel and Tom Bennett) complicate her orchestrations. Adapting Jane Austen's unpublished early novella Lady Susan, Whit Stillman returns to the Sundance Film Festival (where his Metropolitan premiered in 1990) in top form with his latest comedy of manners. Kate Beckinsale excels in her role as the deliciously devious Lady Vernon and delivers each line with relish. With exquisite period detail and a script teeming with bon mots and witty dialogue, Love & Friendship is a rare—and rarified—treat
