Letters from Austen

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the huge boom in popularity of Jane Austen's work over the past few decades is in part due to the great mid-'90s cultural phenomenon of the television and film adaptations of her novels highlighting the fact that her funny, clever and brilliantly mordant exposés of the lives of the 19th century British gentry contain societal commentary that when viewed through a modern eye is unmistakably contemporary.

 

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Director: Whit Stillman
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Xavier Samuel, Morfydd Clark, Emma Greenwell, Tom Bennett, Stephen Fry, Chloe Sevigny
Rating: (G)
Three stars (out of five)

 

So while American writer-director Whit Stillman, the not-so-prolific indie auteur known primarily for '90s festival output such as his Woody Allenesque New York-set debut feature Metropolitan, may on the surface appear to be a somewhat unlikely candidate for shooting a straight period adaptation of one of Austen's lesser-known novellas, the epistolary Lady Susan, there is nevertheless a common similarity of theme within the two artists' stories in relation to the social mores of their respective times.

In fact, remove all the corsets and coattails here and the scenario could be transplanted pretty much anywhere you please.

For Janeites, this is a cleverly reworked, well staged and acted (especially by Kate Beckinsale and Tom Bennett) trifle, with some good laughs, but also more characters, settings and plot points than should reasonably fit within its short running time.

It also made me wish I'd learned more about tiny novelty vegetables, or at least "had been the means of uniting them''.

- Jeremy Quinn