Love And Friendship

This review may contain spoilers!

While comedic enough this period film doesn't have much in terms of plot or well developed characters. I would give Love And Friendship a 4/10.

This film essentially thrives on it's witty dialogue and back and forth interaction between characters, play upon words and snide yet clever remarks are the backbone of this film. The score for this film is also rather well done, it has a certain liveliness that isn't always present within the plot.

Kate Beckinsale, who played Lady Susan Vernon, displayed a very quick wit and versatile performance in this film; Beckinsale was a great choice for the film's main protagonist/antagonist. Morfydd Clark, who played Frederica Vernon, played the innocent emotionally distraught young girl very well; her turbulent relationship with Beckinsale and strong chemistry with the rest of the cast made her one of the better performers of the film. Xavier Samuel, who played Reginald DeCourcy, made for a very charismatic and sometimes gullible role; his infatuation with Beckinsale felt very natural and was performed well by Samuel. Justin Edwards, who played Charles Vernon, was a very entertaining minor performance; he had to be the butt of a few jokes but Edwards kept the tone very good-humoured and fun. Conor MacNeill, who played The Young Curate, this minor priest role resulted in one of the best scenes of the film; MacNeill presents a pure passionate monologue that really resounds with one of the main cast. Jemma Redgrave and James Fleet, who played Lady DeCourcy and Sir Reginald DeCourcy respectively, were an incredibly fun comedic duo; Fleet's obsession with the younger characters was entertaining and the pair shared a hilarious letter reading scene that stood out for me.

However the best performance came from Tom Bennett, who played Sir James Martin. Bennett presents a role who is easily the funniest in the entire film, there are many scenes where he just keeps talking on wild tangents and it will leave you in stitches. There are very few performers in this film who have the type of screen presence that Bennett brings and it would be fair to say that he steals the show. His moronic, bumbling role is a delight and kept my attention throughout.

This film has a very jarring start, you are thrown into the chaotic life of these characters who aren't very well explained or fleshed out, and then you are expected to remain engaged as the plot doesn't really advance so much as you watch long scenes of dialogue during which certain characters attempt to romance one another. It's awfully stale and very stagnant, there is nothing gripping about the film...nothing to keep you engaged and as such the pacing is awful. The cinematography is a bit off, very simple shots interspersed with some rather awful looking attempts at creative shots. The editing for this film is strange and inconsistent, the cutting would move at varying and unpredictable speeds and the character title cards were a novelty that soon wore off.

Jenn Murray, who played Lady Lucy Manwaring, was little more than a simple hysterical performance; she was too over the top and not grounded at all in her performance. Lochlann O'Mearain, who played Lord Manwaring, was essentially reduced to a plot device in this film; he never really felt like a character so much as he was an object to be attained. Chloe Sevigny, who played Alicia Johnson, was a very bland performer and had no chemistry with Beckinsale at all onscreen; Sevigny doesn't deliver her lines very well in this film and her voice kind of grates against your ears after a while. Stephen Fry, who played Mr Johnson, is a very forgettable minor role in this film; his appearance has absolutely no impact upon the story whatsoever and could have played out without him. Emma Greenwell, who played Catherine DeCourcy Vernon, didn't have very much screen presence in this film; Greenwell doesn't stand out at all alongside the stronger members of the film's cast such as Beckinsale, Edwards or Samuel. Kelly Campbell, who played Mrs Cross, was a rather redundant minor role; she was used for one main joke and then abruptly written out of the story. Conor Lambert, who played Wilson The Butler, was a rather bland minor role in this film; not so much a character as he was a piece of the background.