X
- 1995
- PG
- Columbia Pictures
- 2 h 16 m
- 1995
- PG
- Columbia Pictures
- 2 h 16 m
Summary Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters, Elinor, Marianne and teen-age tomboy Margaret, are cruelly deprived of their home and inheritance on the death of their father. The law decrees that magnificent Norland Park must pass to his son by a previous marriage, the girls' stepbrother John, who is partnered in life by the genteely grasping Fanny. T...
Directed By: Ang Lee
Written By: Jane Austen, Emma Thompson
- 1995
- PG
- Columbia Pictures
- 2 h 16 m
- 1995
- PG
- Columbia Pictures
- 2 h 16 m
Sense and Sensibility
8.3
Where to Watch
Summary Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters, Elinor, Marianne and teen-age tomboy Margaret, are cruelly deprived of their home and inheritance on the death of their father. The law decrees that magnificent Norland Park must pass to his son by a previous marriage, the girls' stepbrother John, who is partnered in life by the genteely grasping Fanny. T...
Directed By: Ang Lee
Written By: Jane Austen, Emma Thompson
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Unlike so many other movies of literary provenance, it is clear from the start that this one is going to be entertainment, not homework. Lee serves up this sweetmeat without fuss, without the super-seriousness of filmmakers awed by their literary material.
Poised, delicate, powerful, hovering between poignancy and pealing laughter, it is a feast formed by skill and serendipity.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 101 User Ratings
8.3
93% Positive
94 Ratings
94 Ratings
5% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
2% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 101 User Ratings
8.3
93% Positive
94 Ratings
94 Ratings
5% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
2% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Sense and Sensibility is an undeniable Jane Austin masterpiece marked by a wonderful love story brought to film with Emma Thompson's masterfully winning performance.
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Grandly entertaining...matches the Austen-based "Clueless" for sheer fun. [13 Dec 1995]
Lee, who made the upbeat "Eat Drink Man Woman," plays this double love story as brightly as possible. There's peppy social satire in the smallest of gestures.
But even Grant's uninspired work can't ruin the agreeable, overwhelming atmosphere of fun and romance.
An enjoyable film, and yet it left me somehow unsatisfied...there is too much contrivance in the way [Austen] dispatches her men to London when she is done with them.
I love Jane Austen, and I love period dramas. This film, while a little too long, was perfect for me. I loved it when I first saw it a year ago, and I still love it now. Sense and Sensibility is a great book by Miss Austen, and this film does the book justice, in my personal opinion. The film looks gorgeous, the camera-work, the locations and the costumes. The script sparkled with wit, subtlety, romance and heartache, especially when Marianne goes out into the rain and gets herself ill. The music is lovely also. The performances were exceptional. Period-film veteran Emma Thompson is lovely here as Elinor Dashwood, and Kate Winslet matches her perfectly in a beautifully-blended portrayal of the tragic Marianne. As for the men, they were very good too. Hugh Grant was exceedingly charming as the male lead, and I have read many reviews criticising Alan Rickman's acting.(not on IMDb though) He may have been older than Miss Austen intended, he was very good also as Colonel Brandon, but not as good as the other three. His style of acting is very suave and charismatic, like Sean Connery and George Sanders. If you've seen him in Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves you'll know what I mean. All in all, a lovely film, maybe not the best period drama, but has plenty of elements that makes it truly memorable. 9/10 Bethany Cox
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Brilliant film. Sense and Sensibility is romantic, funny, and fantastically crafted. Flush to the brim with phenomenal acting turns, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Alan Rickman, all stand out the most with absolutely delightful performances in this film. Additionally, the writing is great with well crafted, multi-dimensional characters across the board. The production and costume design here are also pitch perfect, as well as the 18th century medicinal techniques shown in the film. All really capture the period and help to put you into the film even more. In this tale of love and class, Sense and Sensibility does a great job creating realistic romances that really do break your heart when they fail and make you smile when they work. This is ultimately its great success: its authenticity. Overall, Sense and Sensibility is one of the best adaptations of Jane Austen's work.
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This is another adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name, widely known and considered a classic of English literature. I've never read it, I confess... I've never seen it for sale, but one day I'll read it, I'm curious to do so. However, taking into account what I saw in this film, it is not very different from other works by the author, who approached several times themes such as the life of the English middle and upper classes of her time, the rules and social conventions or the way how marriages were arranged according to the size of the dowries and possible inheritances, and not exactly the affections and feelings of the betrothed.
The two protagonists of this film are Marianne and Elinor Dashwood, two young sisters of marriageable age. They are the daughters of a father who has just died, but who is legally prevented from leaving them part of his fortune, which the law obliged him to leave entirely to the son of his first marriage. So the Dashwoods have to move to a small country house rented cheaply by a distant cousin. There, they will rebuild their lives, integrate into the local social life and begin to receive suitors.
Films like this always run the risk of becoming boring, with so many comings and goings, turns and revolts, where the relationships and courtships between the characters seem to go backwards and forwards. In this case, however, I must say that I found the film quite light, less melodramatic and tiring than I expected. The pacing of the film also helps, as it doesn't seem to waste much time pointlessly. The script is full of subtleties, intelligence, criticism of the way of living and thinking of the time.
The cast is very good and is full of well-known and proven names, starting with the protagonists, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, two strong names who adapted well to the characters and knew how to give them what they needed. I'm not a Hugh Grant fan, but I recognize that his stilted posture and thick English accent work well for his character in the film. Alan Rickman is also excellent, in a register that adapts well to a more mature character, like his. However, there are several actors who did not do well, starting with Greg Wise, who was not convincing in my eyes and is very touchy-feely. I also thought that Elizabeth Spriggs was very histrionic and made the character tiresome.
Technically, the film has many merits: Ang Lee directed it intelligently, bringing out the best in everyone. The cinematography is very good and makes the most of England's rains and clouds, as well as the candlelight and the subtle, soft colors of the dresses. The sets are good, and together with the costumes, they manage to insert the audience into the historical period in which the story takes place. Of course, there are some anachronisms and small details where the production clearly had to improvise. The soundtrack also does a competent job.
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Sense and Sensibility is what this movie has got to keep up the logical sensibility to save the movie from not making any sense. See this if you have both sense and sensibility.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 7 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Wins & 6 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 3 Wins & 12 Nominations
