Love & Friendship, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Morfydd Clark, Tom Bennett, Jenn Murray, Lochlann O’ Mearáin, Sophie Radermacher, Chloë Sevigny, Stephen Fry, Xavier Samuel, Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards, Kelly Campbell, Jemma Redgrave, James Fleet.

Playing the action hero for so long can lead to unexpected issues within cinema. For many the sight of an actor in anything other than the expected, the fight scenes, the tense muscles quivering under the spandex or leather a precursor to the belief that in anything else you would not get the merit you deserve. It happens to so many and yet the trend does occasionally get bucked, it does bend and snap and what emerges is nothing short of fantastic.

It might take the skill of a genius, the touch of a director who understands such work, but in Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship, such miracles of acting are possible and in the relish that comes with the beautifully adapted Jane Austen novella, Kate Beckinsale reigns on screen as she has never done before. Tantalising, astute, poised and a sheer delight as Lady Susan Vernon, Ms. Beckinsale rips up the past and brings arguably her greatest acting achievement fully to bear.

Surrounded by such notable talents as Jemma Redgrave, Chloë Sevigny, and James Fleet, Love & Friendship gives Ms. Beckinsale the chance to shine in a way that many of her other films have kept her at bay from. Yes she may have been lauded by a certain section of cinema goers but she has never been stretched to the point of greatness before and it is truly down to the actor for having the courage to play the part of the scheming, flirtatious 18th Century socialite and Whit Stillman for having the vision to cast her in the part.

This very funny, articulate and conscious film never strays from its own belief, it captures the heart of Jane Austen in a way that many of the adaptations of the film have neglected to do, the satisfying humour, the accent on manners when not meaning a single word, the depths of jostling for position in society; all of these come out with flying colours in a film that soars and hits every single note afforded it.

A genuinely superb film which might be a surprise contender for the 2017 award season; Love & Friendship is more than companionship, it is an alliance that cannot be broken.

Ian D. Hall