Love & Friendship (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Love & Friendship (2016) – W. Stillman

A sometimes biting “comedy of manners” (from the epistolary early novella by Jane Austen) that succeeds by having its characters release unfettered streams of words that rush by so quickly that you barely catch the sting in the tail until a moment or two later.  Director Whit Stillman (who seems to have taken a couple decade break from movie-making) also wrote the screenplay and it is witty.  Kate Beckinsale stars as Lady Susan (the actual title of the Austen work), a widow but one whose reputation as a flirt and schemer precedes her wherever she goes.  The film opens with her escaping from the Manwaring estate (where she has been a visitor and perhaps an interloper) to her brother-in-law’s estate called Churchill.  There she seems to be playing a long con, trying to ensnare one or another rich young man for either herself or her teenage daughter because they are penniless (but relying on friends and relations to tend to their every needs).  Xavier Samuel plays one promising partner who becomes infatuated with Lady Susan, but not the daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark). Tom Bennett provides excellent comic relief as a babbling and ridiculous suitor for the daughter (who is predictably put off).  Beckinsale is, by turns, shrewd, wicked, delightful, smartly funny, and ingratiating.  Chloe Sevigny is her American best friend, married to domineering Stephen Fry, who aids and abets. In fact, there are so many different characters, Stillman does well to introduce them all with captions at the start, adding to the fun stylized feel of the film, which also looks great in its period locales (filmed in Ireland) and costumes.  Thumbs up.