Johnson has heard also of the Manwaring uproar so he forbids Alicia to see Lady S. When Lady Susan needs advice and comfort, she turns to her longtime, American friend Alicia Johnson Chloe Sevigny who married a rich, older Brit Stephen Fry. Frederica definitely does NOT want to marry him but her dear, devious mother may require it. Trailing her night and day is HER suitor, Sir James Martin Tom Bennett, a very affable but stupid man. Wouldn't it be a coup if she could remarry a gentleman 15 years younger than she? Soon, the household gets bigger, as Lady S's daughter, Frederica Morfydd Clark leaves school and comes "home". Might she have a heart after all? Love & Friendship is a refreshing and invigorating delight.And Lady Susan attracts him immediately. His fate is settled in the way we might expect. Interestingly, the real Austen heroine is probably the good-looking Reginald he is the yearning idealist who is revolted by the idea of marrying for money, and is poignantly vulnerable to manipulation. It is a film of surfaces and cynicism, in which the romanticism of the more famous stories is almost entirely absent: not much of either love or friendship. The whole film is a very satisfying archery contest of zingers, mostly from Lady Susan. Stephen Fry has a nicely judged cameo as Mr Johnson, who reproves Sevigny’s disagreeable American by informing her that the Atlantic passage is very cold at this time of year. Lady Susan’s response to a gentleman who has the bad taste to hail her in the street is a masterpiece of hauteur. Stillman gets very big laughs by choreographing a veritable quadrille of absurdity. But Stillman keeps him under control, in check for a colossal cuckold joke later on. He almost overbalances the picture, especially with the daft way he claps along at the obligatory ball scene. His opening speech, in which he appears unfamiliar with the word “Churchill” is a showstopper, as is the moment when he praises William Cowper for being able to write both verses and poetry, and a scene at dinner where he professes he has never seen peas before. In the outrageous role of Sir James, Tom Bennett comes very close to pinching the whole film, with his gormless, grinning comedy: the David Brent of Georgian England. Nicely judged cameo … Stephen Fry, centre, with Xavier Samuel and Jenn Murray But she has a wayward daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark), whom she is trying to marry off to a wealthy blockhead called Sir James Martin. Here she appears to set her cap at Catherine’s handsome brother Reginald (Xavier Samuel), to the horror of Catherine and Charles’ parents: very enjoyably played by James Fleet and Jemma Redgrave. She has already left one aristocratic house in some disorder, having apparently exerted her charms, and is now staying with her sister-in-law Catherine (Emma Greenwell) and Catherine’s biddable, bufferish husband Charles – a lovely performance from Justin Edwards. She has a scheming American confidante, Mrs Johnson, played by Chloë Sevigny, to whom she can periodically make her scheming explicit and also put the audience in the picture. She is a widow with beauty and a distinguished name, but no financial means, thus entitled to sympathy and in need of money: a dangerous combination. Lady Susan is the scandalous heroine, to whom Kate Beckinsale gives something predatory yet enigmatic, dressed very becomingly in full mourning black. With its wistful witticisms, its airy contrast of town and country, Love & Friendship somehow feels like an undiscovered Oscar Wilde play. Stillman uses arch intertitles as a kind of visual archaism, almost like a literary silent movie, to introduce his characters and to flash up on screen the contents of letters. It reinvigorates the cliches, the breeches, buttons and bows, and proves you don’t need zombies to restore this writer’s carnivorous appetite. Here is a Jane Austen film that feels like a coolly measured theatrical chamber piece, rather than something from the full Hollywood orchestra.
It also has a young woman talking about earning her living by taking a job: that’s a worst-case scenario that does not come to pass, but even mentioning it is interesting.
Naturally, it takes place in a world where money is supremely important, but it is also a story in which women are permitted to be older, cleverer and better-looking than the men they wish to ensnare. It’s a racier, naughtier piece of work than you might expect.
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