Sense and Sensibility wasn’t the strongest or most well-developed of Jane Austen’s novels, but the characters will still draw you in, especially as they are portrayed so well in this movie version. The film is visually beautiful (it has the quality of a brightly colored painting), and the performances are absorbing. Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet play Elinor and Marianne Dashwood respectively, two sisters whose family has been made poorer after their father’s death. Elinor is a sensible and practical young lady, so level-headed in fact that Marianne wonders whether she will ever love passionately; Marianne, on the other hand, is a decided romantic, easily swayed by flowers, poetry and pretty talk. In the movie they experience the highs and lows of love, and come to learn more about one another and lean upon each other as sisters should.
On the male side of the equation are Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), John Willoughby (Greg Wise), and Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman). Elinor comes to feel deeply about the genial, slightly bashful Edward (more than anyone can guess), but must keep her feelings restrained when she discovers that he is promised to another. As for Willoughby and Brandon, both men factor in Marianne’s life. Willoughby is young and dashing, sweeping Marianne off her feet and playing to all her fantasies of romance; Brandon is an older man who knows he has slim chances with Marianne, and for most of the movie resigns himself to admiring her from afar.
The movie is not always tidy in bringing these relationships to resolution (just as the novel is not), but the acting is wonderful, particularly Emma Thompson as Elinor and Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon. Sense and Sensibility is ultimately a delightful entertainment.
Cast
- Emma Thompson ….. Elinor Dashwood
- Kate Winslet ….. Marianne Dashwood
- Hugh Grant ….. Edward Ferrars
- Alan Rickman ….. Col. Christopher Brandon
- Greg Wise ….. John Willoughby
- Gemma Jones ….. Mrs. Dashwood
- Robert Hardy ….. Sir John Middleton
- James Fleet ….. John Dashwood
- Harriet Walter ….. Fanny Ferrars Dashwood
- Imelda Staunton ….. Charlotte Jennings Palmer