Film ReviewsLove & Friendship
Sep 16, 2016 Anchorage Press
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If only Lady Susan Vernon had seen the zombie coming you gotta love Jane Austen. Wait! Oops, wrong movie. Love & Friendship wishes it would have zombies at the very least. Instead, in his adaptation of Austen's novella Lady Susan, director Whit Stillman manages to bring to the screen a tedious and drawn-out movie that tries too hard and goes nowhere at a snail's pace; disappointing is an understatement.
The beauty of Jane Austen's novella is that she brings a delightfully wicked character to life via a string of letters that project a distinct and witty voice. In Love & Friendship the epistolary structure is deconstructed and made into a regular ol' narrative, thus forcing language that is thoughtful, funny, lyrical and sharply focused-as short letters can be-into a series of posturing, run-on sentences read aloud and in a monotone voice.
Kate Beckinsale plays Lady Vernon, the beautiful widow who by contemporary standards is still a young 30-something, but by the standard of the 1700s English society is long in the tooth. Lady Vernon's husband died and left the widow with very little. She and her daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark) go couch surfing in grand style while Lady Vernon tries to have her cake and eat it too with prospective husbands and stand-by lovers to the detriment of wives and girlfriends in her social circle.
Aesthetically speaking, the film is pretty enough-it has the traditional Austen-stylized manors and rolling countrysides but the London it imagines is sanitary and vague. The costumes are beautiful and the interiors delicious, lots of eye candy and great hairdos. At times the soundtrack is also quite good and makes viewers want to Shazam a tune or two, which they can, because the scenes feel like they drag on.
One can imagine that when Lady Susan was being adapted the possibilities were as infinitely exciting as Austen can be with her wit and insightful zingers; and-to be fair-a few of these do shine even through the murky and dense acting. Kudos to the author. One can also imagine that when the director landed actor Stephen Fry, the film looked even more appetizing. But then Fry is neatly put away in a box, and delivers about a half-dozen lines as the tertiary-level character of Mr. Johnson, the husband of Lady Vernon's bestie, Alicia Johnson, played by Chloë Sevigny.
Just as Lady Susan is all about Lady Vernon, Love & Friendship is all about Beckinsale. Viewers may remember Beckinsale; she has made a lot of movies, but not a lot of good movies and now Love & Friendship can be added to that list. Her career started as a two-year-old television star, but it was in the 1990s that Beckinsale's career really started moving. Viewers may know her from the film franchise Underworld in which she plays the central character, Selene, a mercenary-like vampire during the Lycan-Vampire wars. The franchise is about to release its fifth installment, Underworld: Blood Wars in which Beckinsale comes back to kick some arse. Rumor has it there's even a sixth film in the works. Beckinsale is great on the screen as vampire mercenary-she does action-packed, kicking and slicing so well.
Unfortunately, she is out of her element as a Jane Austen heroine. She's still as good-looking as ever but when she moves in the big dresses along country paths and down grand halls, Beckinsale seems out of place and uncomfortable. Her delivery is stunted and unconvincing-taking the joy out of Lady Susan and flattening the character for viewers. Whit Stillman misses the mark with his production-if only he had handed Lady Vernon a sword and hired a few zombies.
Love & Friendship shows Monday, September 19 at 8 p.m. at Bear Tooth.
The beauty of Jane Austen's novella is that she brings a delightfully wicked character to life via a string of letters that project a distinct and witty voice. In Love & Friendship the epistolary structure is deconstructed and made into a regular ol' narrative, thus forcing language that is thoughtful, funny, lyrical and sharply focused-as short letters can be-into a series of posturing, run-on sentences read aloud and in a monotone voice.
Kate Beckinsale plays Lady Vernon, the beautiful widow who by contemporary standards is still a young 30-something, but by the standard of the 1700s English society is long in the tooth. Lady Vernon's husband died and left the widow with very little. She and her daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark) go couch surfing in grand style while Lady Vernon tries to have her cake and eat it too with prospective husbands and stand-by lovers to the detriment of wives and girlfriends in her social circle.
Aesthetically speaking, the film is pretty enough-it has the traditional Austen-stylized manors and rolling countrysides but the London it imagines is sanitary and vague. The costumes are beautiful and the interiors delicious, lots of eye candy and great hairdos. At times the soundtrack is also quite good and makes viewers want to Shazam a tune or two, which they can, because the scenes feel like they drag on.
One can imagine that when Lady Susan was being adapted the possibilities were as infinitely exciting as Austen can be with her wit and insightful zingers; and-to be fair-a few of these do shine even through the murky and dense acting. Kudos to the author. One can also imagine that when the director landed actor Stephen Fry, the film looked even more appetizing. But then Fry is neatly put away in a box, and delivers about a half-dozen lines as the tertiary-level character of Mr. Johnson, the husband of Lady Vernon's bestie, Alicia Johnson, played by Chloë Sevigny.
Just as Lady Susan is all about Lady Vernon, Love & Friendship is all about Beckinsale. Viewers may remember Beckinsale; she has made a lot of movies, but not a lot of good movies and now Love & Friendship can be added to that list. Her career started as a two-year-old television star, but it was in the 1990s that Beckinsale's career really started moving. Viewers may know her from the film franchise Underworld in which she plays the central character, Selene, a mercenary-like vampire during the Lycan-Vampire wars. The franchise is about to release its fifth installment, Underworld: Blood Wars in which Beckinsale comes back to kick some arse. Rumor has it there's even a sixth film in the works. Beckinsale is great on the screen as vampire mercenary-she does action-packed, kicking and slicing so well.
Unfortunately, she is out of her element as a Jane Austen heroine. She's still as good-looking as ever but when she moves in the big dresses along country paths and down grand halls, Beckinsale seems out of place and uncomfortable. Her delivery is stunted and unconvincing-taking the joy out of Lady Susan and flattening the character for viewers. Whit Stillman misses the mark with his production-if only he had handed Lady Vernon a sword and hired a few zombies.
Love & Friendship shows Monday, September 19 at 8 p.m. at Bear Tooth.