‘Sense and Sensibility’ Review: Why The Dashwoods Feel Closer Than Ever

‘Sense and Sensibility’ arrives in theaters on October 16 from Focus Features, and it walks in carrying the weight of a much loved earlier version. Georgia Oakley, the filmmaker behind ‘Blue Jean’, directs from a screenplay by Diana Reid, and the story runs just over two hours. The question hanging over it is whether Jane Austen’s 1811 novel really needs another trip to the screen.

The story opens where the book does. After their father’s death, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles, are forced out of their home alongside their mother, played by Caitríona Balfe, and their younger sister Margaret, played by Bodhi Rae Breathnach. Their half brother John inherits everything, and his icy wife Fanny makes sure the family gets next to nothing.

Here is where I landed. This is an earthier, sadder and more aching ‘Sense and Sensibility’ than I expected, and it works because Oakley treats the loss of money as a real wound rather than a witty inconvenience. When the sisters move to a small cottage, you feel how narrow their futures have suddenly become.

The performances carry the whole thing. Edgar-Jones makes Elinor’s restraint look like hard physical labor, so the rare moments when she cracks hit with real force. Creed-Miles plays Marianne as someone who simply cannot hide a feeling, and the two actresses build a bond that feels lived in, full of irritation and loyalty in equal measure.

The supporting players add plenty of texture. Balfe is warm and delightfully flustered as the Dashwood mother, Fiona Shaw brings bustling energy as the matchmaking Mrs. Jennings, and Stacy Martin makes Fanny wonderfully hateful. George MacKay gives Edward a bashful sincerity that makes his hesitations easy to forgive.

The film is less generous to its other suitors. Frank Dillane’s Willoughby and Herbert Nordrum’s Colonel Brandon deserve more room, because Marianne’s heartbreak and eventual healing depend on us feeling the pull of both men. Willoughby’s charm barely gets time to work before the story starts pulling away from him.

Visually, Oakley and cinematographer Arnaud Potier favor tea colored interiors, deep green forests and windswept hills. It is handsome and moody, though the muted palette sometimes drains the humor that Austen fans cherish. The opening stretch in particular can feel a touch somber before the comedy of manners finally finds its footing.

My larger quibble is that the film follows the familiar beats so closely that it rarely surprises you. If you know the 1995 version well, you will see the major turns coming, and only the performances and the weather beaten mood keep them from feeling routine. That is a modest complaint, but it stops this from becoming the revelation it occasionally threatens to be.

Still, I left the theater moved, and that counts for a great deal with a story this well worn. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ succeeds because two lead actresses make a bond between sisters feel like the real love story, and I would happily watch them again. I give it 8 out of 10.

Do you agree that this version earns its place beside the 1995 classic, and which Dashwood sister did you connect with most, so tell us in the comments.