Sense And Sensibility

Ang Lee, UK 1995, 136 minutes

Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are polar opposite. Elinor represents sense, rationality and control of the emotions. Marianne on the contrary is sensibility, a fervent disciple of the romantic age. Unfortunately the sisters and their mother are being forced out of their home owing to the death of their father and the fact that his inheritance will go to their elder half brother.

Before their departure for Devonshire, Elinor meets and rather falls for her brother in law, Edward Ferrars. He is due to be married to another, more eligible, young woman and so she suffers in silence. Marianne is more fortunate, on arrival in Devon she catches the eye first of the worthy but dull Colonel Brandon, and then of the dashing young John Willoughby who rescues her in romantic circumstances when she slips and hurts her ankles in the rain. Romance seems to be blossoming but when it comes to practical matters like money will romance be strong enough to win out? And for Elinor will there be a happy ending?

Jane Austen was an acute observer of human nature and even though Sense and Sensibility was an early novel her acerbic sense of humour was already in evidence, while pitying both girls in their romantic plights she also pokes fun at how silly they can be. She captured the daily routines of country society in a way that has never been bettered and these elements are all bought out in Emma Thompson’s script.

Ang Lee proves his versatility as a director time and time again and this charming period piece is one of the highlights of his career. A fantastic cast - including Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and the lovely Alan Rickman deliver stunning performances, this is not merely another costume drama with pretty dresses but genuinely human.

Jane Austen’s girls always get their men in the end and this light and happy film is perfect for the Valentine period.

Review by Louise Oliver
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2007

One of the big hits of 1996, and the film that won Emma Thompson an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as countless BAFTA's, all thoroughly deserved for a film that captures so well the spirit of the novel; knowing, but with an open sense of frivolity going hand in hand with the satire.

The plot concerns the two Dashwood sisters, disinherited by reason of their sex, and their various trials and tribulations with the opposite sex. The two sisters, Marianne (Kate Winslet) and Elinor (Emma Thompson) discover that while the former could be seen as prone to excess `sensibility' and the latter too constrained by `sense', in fact they both possess both qualities.

The film is much more than a period romance, due to the witty script's satirical pot-shots at various aspects of the society of the time, many of which criticisms are just as valid now as they were in Austen's day. The director, Ang Lee, shows a painterly eye for composition and lighting, while bringing a realism to the action so often lacking in `tea, scones and frilly frocks' dramas such as this. Some of the costumes even show up in more than one scene, for goodness sake!

Performance-wise, the film belongs to Kate Winslet. Her rosy-cheeked girlishness and delicate features betray the vulnerability of her outwardly gutsy and confident character. Thompson is also great, bringing warmth, humanity and depth to her matronly, pragmatic Elinor. A bevy of well-known British thesps make up an exemplary supporting cast. Stand-outs include a thoroughly dashing Greg Wise, and a show-stealing turn from Hugh Laurie as a cynical, henpecked husband. Alan Rickman is maybe a little too taciturn and Hugh Grant a little too... well... Hugh Grant, but these are minor quibbles in an otherwise unmissable film.

"A beautifully crafted, witty, moving film ****" - Empire

Review by Melanie Baker
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97