This underrated Jane Austen movie with Kate Beckinsale is now streaming on Prime Video — and it's the perfect weekend watch

Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship — (Image credit: Lionsgate)

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."

What is 'Love & Friendship' about?

Love & Friendship | Official Trailer - YouTube

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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

best movies on Amazon Prime Video: Love and Friendship — (Image credit: Amazon Studios)

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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Christina Izzo is a writer-editor covering culture, food and drink, travel and general lifestyle in New York City. She was previously the Deputy Editor at My Imperfect Life, the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York.

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