'love & Friendship' All Scheming Trouble

Stillman spent years adapting the collection of letters into "Love & Friendship," a talky tale centered on the manipulative, self-serving ways of an attractive young widow. Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny again play friends obsessed with relationships and reputation, except this story takes place at least 100 years earlier (Austen's novella was set in 1790). In opulent costumes by Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh and a mountainous tumble of curls, Beckinsale's Lady Susan is immaculate in her appearance and delivery of Stillman's well-crafted prose. Stillman embellished Austen's novella beyond its epistolary form into both the screenplay and his own novel (due this summer), so it's hard to know how much of Lady Susan's character was drawn by each author, but she's wholly modern in that she exploits the social norms so many Austen characters embrace.