Jane Austen is celebrating a pretty major birthday this year. The famed scribe will turn the big 2-5-0 on December 16, smack-dab in the middle of cozy sweater-weather season.
And while most fans of the English author are celebrating the milestone by gearing up for brand-new takes on the writer's most-loved tales (including a six-part Netflix miniseries version of "Pride & Prejudice" starring Emma Corrin, Jack Lowden and Olivia Colman, and Focus Feature's upcoming big-screen remake of "Sense & Sensibility" led by Daisy Edgar-Jones), this Austen diehard is looking back at one of the novelist's most underrated page-to-screen adaptations: 2016's "Love & Friendship."
Based on Austen's posthumously published 1871 epistolary novel "Lady Susan," "Love & Friendship" stars Kate Beckinsale as the titular lady, who attempts to bounce back from her recent widowhood to calculatingly secure suitably wealthy husbands for her daughter and herself.
Unlike Austen's other, more famous novels like the aforementioned "P&P," "S&S," "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion," which all have had numerous screen adaptations over the decades, the devilishly fun Whit Stillman-directed dramedy is, thus, far the only film version of "Lady Susan." Need more convincing? Here's why you should check out "Love & Friendship," streaming now on Prime Video.
What is 'Love & Friendship' about?
Written and directed by Whit Stillman ("Metropolitan," "The Last Days of Disco"), "Love & Friendship" centers on the beautiful, wily widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), who uses her considerable skills of seduction and savviness to act as matchmaker for not only her reluctant daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) but also herself to renew the family's fortunes.
After being turned out of her own estate — due to a saucy dalliance with a married lord, which had the 18th-century English high society abuzz — Lady Susan takes temporary refuge at the residence of her late husband’s brother Charles (Justin Edwards) and his wife Catherine (Emma Greenwell). While there, with the help of her American friend Alicia Johnson (Chloë Sevigny), Lady Susan gets to scheming, but two handsome suitors (Xavier Samuel and Tom Bennett) complicate her plans.
Why you should stream 'Love & Friendship' on Prime Video
With a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the sharp-witted and sensationally wicked "Love & Friendship" is actually one of the top-rated Jane Austen adaptations ever, bested only by Robert Z. Leonard's 1940 version of "Pride & Prejudice" and the fan-favorite Emma Thompson-led 1995 take on "Sense & Sensibility."
Much of the critical praise was deservedly showered on lead Kate Beckinsale, who turns in one of her best and most deliciously devious performances as Lady Susan. "Beckinsale, coolly imbibing one of the most satisfying screen roles of her career, lends the character an edge of ironic self-appreciation," wrote Justin Chang in his review for Variety, adding that the British star "magnetizes the screen in a way that naturally underscores how far ahead of everyone else she is."
For The New Yorker, Richard Brody highlighted the stylized nature of not only the production design and costuming but also Beckinsale's acting: "Beckinsale displays a powerful sense of gesture; her poised head and precise gaze seem to divide and organize the space around her. She lends Lady Susan a sense of lightly borne self-mastery that matches her mastery of the rules of the social game that she’s compelled to play."
Watch Love and Friendship on Prime Video now
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