Love & Friendship

Cult auteur Whit Stillman's effervescent adaptation of Jane Austen's neglected novella Lady Susan provides a welcome reunion for the stars of his 1998 film The Last Days of Disco, Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny. Beckinsale is a fine fit for the book's eponymous schemer, while Sevigny is her confidante. Recently widowed and leaving a trail of scandal behind her, "diabolical genius" and legendary flirt Lady Susan Vernon arrives to stay with her estranged in-laws in the country, where she torments a young admirer (Xavier Samuel) and plots to marry off her meek daughter (Morfydd Clark) to a wealthy fool (a hilarious, scene-snatching Tom Bennett). Beckinsale turns in a pristine performance as an arch-manipulator who remains amusingly unflappable in the face of hysteria and indignation, and Stillman enlivens Austen's exquisite farce (originally told in frantically exchanged letters) with befitting, often sparklingly witty dialogue. Channelling and embellishing the source material's subversion, Stillman toys with the traditional trappings of period drama, throwing out the stuffiness in favour of something terrifically fresh and oh-so wonderfully wicked.