Not since the film adaptation of Mansfield Park, while not as somber, has there been such a brash yet enjoyable take on a Jane Austen novel as Love & Friendship. Love & Friendship is an adaptation of Lady Susan, which I have not read. Love & Friendship is about a scandalous widow’s effect on the lives of the landed gentry’s family as she schemes to survive.
While Love & Friendship is a delightful trifle, the film comes at you rapidly and requires complete attention and an alert mind. Characters are introduced with title cards, but just because someone is introduced, it does not necessarily mean that the character will play a larger role in the film. The dialogue is intricate and nuanced. I never quite found my footing and was kept off balance as I was thrown into the action with little to no adjustment to the setting or characters. Love & Friendship is chaos cinema for the mind.
Love & Friendship’s Lady Susan is an awful human being, but considering how society’s rules were rigged against her ability to survive and be happy, you will find yourself hoping for the seemingly impossible: a happy ending for her and all those that need to guard against her. Lady Susan’s hypocritical dialogue and masterful manipulation is second only to Chloe Sevigny’s appearance in an 18th century British period piece!
Love & Friendship won’t change your life, but it will entertain and challenge you with its exploration of life at the margins of 18th century society’s mores.