Sense And Sensibility (Collector's Edition) [1996] - DVD (Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson, Harriet Walter - Dir: Ang Lee)

Emma Thompson scores a double bull's-eye with Sense and Sensibility, a marvellous adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Not only does Thompson turn in a strong (and gently humorous) performance as Elinor Dashwood--the one with "sense"--she also wrote the witty, wise screenplay. Austen's tale of 19th-century manners and morals provides a large cast with a feast of possibilities, notably Kate Winslet, in her pre-Titanic flowering, as Thompson's deeply romantic sister, Marianne (the one with "sensibility"). Winslet attracts the wooing of shy Alan Rickman (a nice change of pace from his bad-guy roles) and dashing Greg Wise, while Thompson must endure an incredibly roundabout courtship with Hugh Grant, here in fine and funny form. All of this is doled out with the usual eye-filling English countryside and handsome costumes, yet the film always seems to be about the careful interior lives of its characters. The director, an inspired choice, is Taiwan-born Ang Lee, here making his first English-language film. He brings the same exquisite taste and discreet touch he displayed in his previous Asian films (such as Eat Drink Man Woman). Thompson's script won an Oscar. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews of Sense And Sensibility (Collector's Edition) [1996]

Sheneez
England
8th January 2009

As engaging as the novel!
I am only 17 years old, and due to a strange inspiration from watching the most recent Pride and Prejudice film i decided to start reading the Jane Austen collection. I am reading them in order of when they were written and have just finished reading Sense and Sensibility. The novel itself, i found hard to put down at all, and for the past week i have hardly slept and have not done nearly as much homework as i should have as a result! After finishing the novel i decided to treat myself to this highly acclaimed film in which Emma Thompson captures Elinor in all her grace and humility, and Kate Winslet acts as a successful Marianne. This is a definite recommendation, for the younger generation too! I found Hugh Grant not nearly as annoying as i usually do in films, and i feel he played his role extremely well. Also the deleted scenes are pretty amazing, especially the one where Mrs. Dashwood acknowledges her neglect of Elinor's situation, as this was one of my personal favourite parts of the novel. Also watch Emma Thompson's acceptance speech as an extra, it is worth watching.
If i was to have one disappointment it would be at the particular details that have been left out from the novel, although this is always necessary in big film productions. Also i was not very convinced by the portrayal of Colonel Brandon, nor Willoughby, but this did not hinder the film much.
All in all i feel this was an almost perfect adaption, and most credit is due probably to Ang Lee, and the two main actresses.

cathy earnshaw
Berlin, Germany
23rd December 2007

Austenmania is well-served here, but are these productions missing something?
Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee with a screenplay written by Emma Thompson, made up one part of the holy trinity of Austen productions which aired in 1995. That crowning year for Austenmania began with the BBC production of Persuasion in April 1995 (starring Amanda Root and Ciáran Hinds), followed by the impeccable BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) in September and October, and was capped off in mid-December by this film version of Sense and Sensibility. Emma Thompson's much-praised screenplay (for which she won an Oscar and a Golden Globe) straddles the difficult divide between pleasing the community of Jane Austen purists and making the 1811 novel appealing to a wider audience of cinema-goers with a bent for romantic drama. The dialogue and mannerisms are modernised a little, but not to the absurd degree displayed in Joe Wright's weak adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 2005 (which has a miscast Keira Knightley in the lead role).

In the novel, Austen counsels us once again towards rational love and shows the dangers of Marianne's self-blinding, guileless abandonment to passion (played by a pre-Titanic Kate Winslet in tight, corkscrew ringlets). Many Brigid Jones fans will undoubtedly be able to identify with her uncontainable romanticism and headstrong devotion to following her feelings irrespective of what someone like Elinor (Emma Thompson) - steady, reserved and so mature, she's almost dull - might think. And so it is that the one sister is able to learn something crucial from the other: Marianne is forced by circumstance to realise the near-fatal risks of passionate devotion to someone of whom she has only an impression, rather than true knowledge; and Elinor, sobbing like a human Niagra Falls at the close, that an excess of emotional repression can be devastatingly misunderstood as the absence, rather than secrecy, of love.

In terms of doing what it says on the tin, the film cannot really be faulted (although you have to like Hugh Grant's routinal foppish inarticulacy to buy him in the role of Edward Ferrars). But I can't escape the feeling that something is lacking in some of these safe, 'suburban' period dramas. What marks Jane Austen out as a genial writer is the sparky high irony with which she tells her social dramas. And the key problem that adaptations of her novel face is: how to convey her idiosyncratic voice? Don't these rather academic productions bypass that problem by reproducing Austen's narrative as closely as possible whilst only half-heartedly addressing the difficult question of voice? Can very efficient and safe filmmaking like this genuinely reproduce Austen's deft irony?

The market for films emanating a nostalgia for the high morals, manners and decorum of England's Regency period has mushroomed. The question now, twelve years after these versions were first released, is whether filmmakers are prepared to consider new ways of interpreting these novels and, in doing so, to challenge and push viewers beyond nostalgia and their comfort zone to a new, and perhaps deeper, understanding of Austen's timeless classics.

octillio
Buckinghamshire
10th November 2007

Sensational
I must admit I was put off watching this for many years because I have never been a fan of Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett or Hugh Grant and the fact that all three were in it was a definite turn off. I finally watched it one rainy windy afternoon when there was nothing worth watching on tv and was captivated. Fine acting, fine script, beautiful costumes, wonderful settings - well worth watching and I'm sorry I didn't do so sooner. One of the few examples of a film living up to the book.

Observer
Bradford, UK
3rd November 2007

Faultless.
The magic of the movies allows a story of no obvious relevence, to touch your soul.
The triumph of sense and sensibility being the delicate and acutely observed range of emotion in a period setting.
The cast illustrating the gift of an actor who can lift a character from the page and render them in a truely memorable film.
I love this film, you've got to watch it.

Susan E. Wyld
West Midlands, Uk
17th October 2007

Looks on tempests but never shaken......
This is a truly delightful adaptation. Fron the beginning it captures the atmosphere and spirit of the era with a good script, excellent costmes and beautiful settings. Quite a lot of the dialogue has been plucked directly from the pages of the novel, and most of that which hasn't has been written so closely to Austen's style that it sounds like it should be Austen.

The cast are all excellent (with one exception, which I will come to). Kate Winslet is perfect as the beautiful, emotional Marianne, Alan Rickman is strong and passionate as Colonel Brandon and Elizabeth Spriggs shines as jolly but interfering Mrs Jennings. Hugh Grant makes a suitably shy and sedate Edward Ferrars, Greg Wise plays the perfect rogue as Willoughby and the supporting characters, including the hilarious Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie, all fit around them perfectly. Several of the other minor characters have been cut, in order to fit the story into a 2 hour film, but it remains fairly faithful to the book and nothing of importance is lost.

The only "odd one out" is Emma Thompson, who is too old for the part of Elinor and sadly this shows. Although she does a good job for the most part, her acting during the dramatic scenes where she finally admits her feelings for Edward to Marianne, and later when she and Edward finally get together, is very stilted. On the plus side, there is great chemistry between all the characters and the placing of Elinor as the "sensible" one and "mother" of the household is spot on. I also like the friendship which we see develop between her and Colonel Brandon.

The real star here of course is Kate Winslet, who completely steals the show as Marianne and will have you crying with her in despair over Willoughby as she makes the emotional transition from girl to woman.

Other particularly delightful moments to look out for are Fanny Dashwood pushing a shocked Lucy Steele out of the doorway by the nose and Greg Wise on horseback in the rain.