Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny reunite with their The Last Days of Disco director Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress, Metropolitan) for this deliciously sharp comedy. Based on the Jane Austen novella ‘Lady Susan’ and set in the 1790s, it’s a tale of matchmaking and heartbreaking, centred around beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale).
The scheming Lady Susan has come to Churchill, her in-laws’ estate, to wait out the colourful rumours about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Whilst there, aided and abetted by her loyal friend Alicia (Sevigny) – who’s married to upright killjoy Mr Johnson (Stephen Fry) – she decides to secure husbands for herself and her long-suffering daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark).
But the arrival of two men at Churchill, handsome and eligible Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel) and wealthy Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett) severely complicates their plans.
Stillman, surely a natural fit for Austen, is on top form here with a gloriously witty and acerbic tale of romance and realism that’s already getting excellent festival reviews.
