There’ve been some of Jane Austen’s unpublished works that’ve been discovered since her death. These works were ‘Sanditon’, ‘Lady Susan’ and ‘The Watsons’. Of the ones that were actually finished but never released was ‘Lady Susan’; a early work of Jane’s that was never released in her life time despite it being finished.
Out of the three works that’ve received film or tv adaptations, only two have been adapted (to the best of my knowledge). Those two are ‘Sanditon’ and ‘Lady Susan’…which had its title changed to ‘Love and Friendship’ in its 2016 adaptation.
The story starts off with Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale in her second Austen drama (the first was ‘Emma’ in a tv film back in 1996) and her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark) leaving Langford in a hurry. The reason soon becomes clear; Lady Susan doesn’t want her daughter to marry a man that she has fallen in love with.
Meanwhile back at Churchill, the home of Lady Susan’s parents and her sister-in-law Mrs Cahtherine Vernon (Emma Greenwell) have received a letter about what has just happened but Catherine isn’t fooled; she knows that Lady Susan has other “plans” for Frederica and knows that Frederica is very upset.
She decides to try and help Lady Susan’s daughter although her husband Charles Vernon (Justin Edwards) and her younger brother Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel) are much more hesitant; they also know that Lady Susan will stop at nothing to try and carry out her plans of an arranged marriage for Frederica.
In Edward Street, London, Mrs Alicia Johnson (Chloe Sevigny)- Lady Susan’s best friend- and Alicia’s husband Mr Johnson (Stephen Fry) welcome Lady Susan back to London for a short stay. Lady Susan tells Alicia of her plans not just involving Frederica but Lady Susan herself; Lady Susan intends to marry Reginald and have Fredrica marry Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett); a man that Fredrica refuses to have because he’s “very silly”.
For a film that was shot in 26 days, it’s a lot better-looking than a vast majority of today’s big budget films (looking at you Disney with Marvel).
Despite that though, this is probably the only Jane Austen adaptation in which I wasn’t over all impressed with soundtrack-wise. I’ll let them off with it since it was a low-budget film.
Everyone seems to be trying their hardest acting-wise to make this a good film despite the low budget. Even more so from Kate herself although Lady Susan isn’t as likable as Emma was. At least Emma admitted that she was in the wrong which is more than I can say for Lady Susan.
Over all, not the best Jane Austen adaptation but not the worst adaptation either. I’m looking at you Netflix with that horrible take on ‘Persuasion’!
ความคิดเห็น