Movie Review: "Love & Friendship"

"Love & Friendship": C+.  I'm not saying film critic Tim Robey of The Telegraph was on wacky tobaccy, but calling Love & Friendship "flat-out hilarious" is, itself, hilarious.  Robey's two-word description is at the top of the related movie poster, surely cause for a truth-in-advertising investigation.  I failed to do more than twitch a faint smile or two during my viewing, and I did not hear any laughter from my fellow movie patrons.  I can attest that not everyone in the audience was Scandinavian, a people often accused of possessing a dour sense of humor, because I, for one, am not.

The story is based on a novel, Lady Susan, written by Jane Austen in her teenage years.  Kate Beckinsale plays Lady Susan Vernon, a recently widowed mother of sixteen year old shrinking violet Frederica (Morfydd Clark).  Although marriage is the farthest thing from the daughter's mind, it's at the top of Susan's not only for her own sake but for Frederica's as well.  A common theme of Austen's works is the dependency which wives have on their husbands for financial well-being, and how the death of the latter results in unfair consequences for the former, mostly due to the laws of the land.  Susan has been rendered poor by her spouse's demise.  She is not in a position to wait for a true love to enter her life.  She is a huntress, and any male with a pulse and a bank account is fair game, regardless of age or marital status.  If the term "cougar" had been around in seventeenth century England, Lady Susan would have filled the bill perfectly.  The facts that Susan is beautiful and possesses a wardrobe befitting a princess help her on her quest.  Those qualities are counter-balanced by her cunning and deceit.

 

The film attempts to be a comedy, first with the too-rapid introduction of a dozen or more characters by showing their pictures accompanied with clever descriptive captions.  A poppy violin score fills in transitions between scenes throughout the movie.  The dialogue is a mixture of thoughtful observations, clever retorts and witty reproaches.  I would have appreciated the wit more if I didn't have to strain to decipher the dialect.  Maybe I will rewatch the movie on a DVD with subtitles.  Director Whit Stillman tries too hard to play the humor card with Tom Bennett's character, Sir James Martin.  Rather than being lovably cute and naive a la Mrs. Bennett in Pride & Prejudice, Sir James comes across like an ignorant dolt.  For example, he gets the largest charge out of the estate's name, Churchill; he can't imagine why there is neither a church nor a hill.  The lead male character, Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), accurately refers to Sir James more than once as "a blockhead."

 

Even though, to director Stillman's credit, the running time of the movie is only ninety-two minutes, the pacing is not brisk.  Some of the problem is caused by the defect of sameness among scenes and characters.  For example, the settings change among two estates, Langford and Churchill, and a London apartment, yet it's not always clear which space we are watching at any given time.  Likewise, although young Reginald is the main male character, most of the supporting older gents all seem the same.  And even if there were some barely traceable marks of distinction, none of the males, including Reginald, is particularly interesting.  Perhaps that's the way things were back then in jolly old England.

 

Yesterday I was reading a review of the Broadway touring production of The Bridges Of Madison County, about which Star Tribune theater critic Rohan Preston wrote the following: "There are no surprises or unexpected turns in the story."  Compare that with the following short notes I took three days ago less than an hour after I watched Love & Friendship:  "Lacks suspense.  What you expect will happen does happen."  Two great minds thinking alike regarding two productions, one on stage and the other on the silver screen.  At least I got to watch Kate Beckinsale for an hour and a half; Mr. Preston didn't.