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Adultery is briefly mentioned but never seen and there is little else that will concern parents. This delightful period piece benefits from having very little in the way of content issues. Beckinsale also manages to lie, rationalize, and justify her behavior with a perfectly straight face, bringing Jane Austen’s delicious verbal irony to the screen with real brilliance. We may not like the things she does, but her courage and determination in the face of her financial desperation are at least understandable. Even though Lady Susan is outrageously selfish and astoundingly hypocritical, even though she cruelly manipulates her daughter, Beckinsale manages to make her character at least somewhat sympathetic. Plaudits also go to the cast, particularly Kate Beckinsale.

There are moments where the verbal exposition feels a bit clunky, but these are few.

Turning letters into a movie script is a challenge but Stillman manages to keep the energy of the plot, depict the characters’ feelings and motivations, and, most importantly, maintain Lady Susan’s incisive, ironic voice. Can Lady Susan pressure Frederica into marriage with Sir James while maintaining Reginald’s interest?ĭirector Whit Stillman, who also wrote the screenplay, deserves credit for an excellent adaptation of an epistolary novella. All is going swimmingly until Lady Susan’s daughter, Frederica, runs away from her finishing school, only to be followed to Churchill by Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), a wealthy, babbling fool who believes himself to be in love with her. And she will appear to be the world’s most gentle, retiring widow and make Catherine’s brother, Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), regret that he ever believed any unsavory rumors about her. She will ingratiate herself with her sister-in-law, Catherine (Emma Greenwell), by doting on her children. Once at Churchill, Lady Susan executes her plan for the conquest of her in-laws. Having become involved in an adulterous relationship with Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O’Mearain) while on a visit to his estate, Lady Susan feels the need of a strategic retreat and invites herself on a visit to Churchill, the estate owned by her brother-in-law, Charles Vernon (Justin Edwards). Luckily, she possesses charm and wit in abundance, compensating for the fact that she is no longer young (but still beautiful). Since upper class women of her day had no respectable means of earning an income, Lady Susan has been forced to rely on her charm. Love & Friendship is the story of Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), a scheming, manipulative widow in straitened financial circumstances. Love & Friendship, a witty adaptation of Jane Austen’s lesser known novella, Lady Susan, subverts most of these expectations. Audiences have clear expectations about movies adapted from Jane Austen novels: the heroines will be likeable, their suitors will undergo some kind of test to demonstrate that they deserve them, and the story will end happily ever after.