At one point in “The Pursuit of Love,” Emily Mortimer’s stylish series set in pre-WW II England, the “Bolter” (a middle-aged woman also played by Mortimer) tells her square daughter Fanny (Emily Beecham) something rather insightful. “Don’t worry about always being so good. It’s almost as painful as being so bad,” she says.
Strange advice from a woman who’s “bolted”
from her husband and daughter to live life as a libertine. Fanny, left to be raised by an aunt, develops a strong friendship with her cousin Linda (Lily James from “Downton Abbey”), a relationship that is the core of this three-episode series, based on a novel by Nancy Mitford.
Linda, raised in an English manor house by her hilariously pompous father Matthew (Dominic West), is consumed with the idea of love for love’s sake. She falls head over heels for Tony (Freddie Fox), a banker’s son, and marries him, only to discover he is a bore and a tosser. While still married to Tony and living life as a Bright Young Thing in 1930’s England, she begins an affair with Christian (James Flecheville) a handsome young Communist. She divorces Tony and follows her new husband Christian to Spain to fight Franco in 1938.
When THAT marriage doesn’t work out, Linda flees to Paris, where she is picked up in the Gare du Nord by the dashing Fabrice (Assad Bouabb, who played the tech billionaire in “Call My Agent”). Fabrice is a dandy who plies Linda with gifts, a pet doggie, and words of love. Perhaps the love she has been pursuing has finally been found?
Meanwhile, Fanny follows a more conventional path in life: marrying a boring Oxford don (Shazad Latif), raising children, and constantly worrying about her impetuous cousin Linda. Fanny may have the world’s first recorded case of FOMO: what if she had taken more chances and not married the first fellow she liked at such an early age?
Lily James’ beauty (she looks like the young Gloria Vanderbilt) and slightly batty charm help overcome what could have been a conventional “what if?” story about women’s options in mid 20th century England. The presence of snarky, eccentric aesthetes like Lord Merlin (Andrew Scott) who dyes his pigeons red and blue add a bit of levity. Scenes of Spaniards in refugee camps during the Spanish Civil War contribute drama and historical authenticity.
POL earns a solid B-plus overall, with a grade of A-plus for the score (a mashup of contemporary pop and blues), and an A-plus-plus costumes. Lily James’ outfits in Paris alone might have had Diana Vreeland not merely green, but chartreuse with envy. And those hats. Can we talk?