Maybe this will be like “Last Days of Disco” but with corsets and manners?Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale have teamed up again with their “Disco” director Whit Stillman for “Love & Friendship,” an adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novella “Lady Susan.”
Unlike Austen’s other lead characters, who have their faults but who are inherently good people, the two friends of “Lady Susan” are scheming and selfish, so this will be a nice change of pace from other Austen adaptations. Beckinsale takes on the titular role, while Sevigny plays her American confidant Alicia Johnson.
The film’s synopsis reads like Austen could have written it herself: “Beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon visits to the estate of her in-laws to wait out the colorful rumors about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Whilst ensconced there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and a future for her eligible but reluctant daughter, Frederica. In doing so she attracts the simultaneous attentions of the young, handsome Reginald DeCourcy, the rich and silly Sir James Martin and the divinely handsome, but married, Lord Manwaring, complicating matters severely.”
Beckinsale and Sevigny’s charming wit is highly suitable for the kind of posh, puffed up dramedy of dalliances.
“Love & Friendship” premiered at Sundance earlier this year and will hit theaters on May 13.
