Love and Friendship * * * *

We are indebted Mr Flip  for your most gracious review.

Watching Love and Friendship is a bit like meeting Oscar Wilde: Very funny, very clever, very charming, dressed beautifully and always using beautiful language.

Yes, I know, Oscar came some considerable time after this lot but that’s the analogy I am using.  

In this film by Whit Stillman  he has taken the characters from a Jane Austen story and made his own story complete with Jane Austen dialogue.  It’s just that everyone is saucier and exaggerated.  

Lady Susan is a beautiful but manipulating widow with a reputation to match.  She is seeking a suitable husband for her rather dull daughter but realises some of the prospects might be more useful in a role other than son-in-law.

Tom Bennett as a wonderfully eccentric Gentleman is masterful.  Worth going to see the film for his performance alone.  A colourful, funny and very clever film.