Written by: Emma Thompson
Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Gemma Jones
Rating: [4.5/5]
It’s often debated whether or not love alone can successfully sustain a relationship through all of the turmoil that can deter it. In the world of Sense and Sensibility, the question becomes whether love can transcend the monetary nature of society as well as one’s social standing. We receive an answer on multiple occasions in this eloquently crafted film.
After the death of their father, the Dashwood girls are left with a £500 per year inheritance, relegating them to a more modest lifestyle. As they enter the age of courting a potential husband, their financial position proves to be a deterrent as they would come with no dowry and from what can be considered a lower-class family.
Sometimes all you need in life to bring a little sunshine and delight is watching a Jane Austen adaptation; a world dealing with real issues but done so in the most pleasant and heartwarming ways. Sense and Sensibility proves to be one of the better ones out there as it lands all of the emotional beats the story has to offer and does so in such a loving manner as it connects all of the characters in this bout for love. You get all of the heartache and fluttering you could possibly want while also looking at how this entire game operates and all of the players manipulating it. Not everything has the purity of two individuals falling in love with each other because they signify a perfect match organically.
Right at the heart of this story lies the Dashwood girls who each have their own distinct personalities and bring something special to the story. The love these girls have for each other emanates such warmth as they stand as their own true allies when it comes to this game of courtship. No matter what occurs out there, they can always rely on each other. The eldest, Elinor (Emma Thompson) provides the wisdom of the group but has to deal with her own issues as well as she begins what feels like a courtship with Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant). From the get-go, these two strike up something beautiful and has so much promise, but as stories go, there needs to be some conflict they need to overcome and it certainly gets heavily dramatic once some reveals come to light. Their bond holds strong throughout the film even with several segments where Edward does not appear on screen. They have that much of a hold on the story. In the intermediate, we get involved with Marianne’s (Kate Winslet) very messy courtship.
This involves a colonel (Alan Rickman) and a very handsome and debonair John Willougby (Greg Wise) as this love triangle makes for something quite devastating and moving in equal measure. The roller coaster of emotion the poor girl goes through really tests the limit of what such a young woman could possibly endure but it makes the finale she receives all that much richer in such a positive way. Winslet’s wide-eyed approach in the portrayal certainly helps in detailing what this all means for her as she stands out amongst the rest of the cast with what she manages to accomplish as Marianne.
Other than focusing on the romantic relationships at the center of the story, the larger observation of how society operates also elevates the texture of the story. Seeing just how mean others can be to someone because of their social standing or what dowry they can provide sheds plenty of light on how these individuals view the world and their place in it. One scene, in particular, when the sisters attend a ball in London truly highlights the point of what it means for these lower-class girls to enter the spotlight in a place where they find no comfort or solidarity with others. This game operates as such for other people never minding the feelings of these impressionable young women. I guess those established married women need to find a way to entertain themselves after assuring their own security and standing.
It truly shocks me when Ang Lee mentions in interviews his worst films, the ones involving technological advances, have always been the films he has wanted to make and the likes of this film served as what he had to make in order to get by. If anything, this film along with Brokeback Mountain still stand as the towering achievements of his career and frankly, it’s not even close. You can’t change how an individual feels about the films they have made but at the very least he knows he crafted something quite sumptuous. Lee’s versatility as a filmmaker allows him to slip right into this genre and make something so impactful in collaboration with Emma Thompson’s fantastic script adapting the words of the story. Everything feels so rich and textured in the narrative as we bask in the idyllic countryside and venture into a major city like London.
Sense and Sensibility has so much to love in how it opens up this world for us to peer into. We go on this journey with the Dashwood sisters as they go through an emotional gauntlet filled with heartbreak and affirmation all in the hope of finding the person they love. Several scenes provide swoon-worthy moments letting these actors absolutely shine in their delivery and the cast absolutely hold up their end of the bargain in the way they bring to life this wonderful story. Each facet comes together spectacularly well as we feel everything these sisters do in such an impactful manner.
Films with Josh 
