What director Ang Lee and screenwriter Emma Thompson did in 1995 with SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, Jane Austen’s classic novel, was exquisite. It brought the famed writer’s female-focused story to a new generation, artistically rendered in every aspect. Some may wonder why anyone would want to remake such a success, but Hollywood has always loved returning to literary classics, and a modern update can always bring new shadings, even to a novel written in 1811.
That may very well be what drove Working Title Films to revisit Austen this year. We live in economically troubled times, and Austen’s story of two penniless sisters hoping to turn their fortunes likely resonated in a way that it hadn’t in decades. Additionally, the suppression of women’s rights across the globe, even in the USA, likely encouraged the women behind this production to highlight Austen’s story about the patriarchy keeping women down, drawing a direct line to today. In fact, Austen’s powerful storytelling seems top of mind at Netflix as well, since they are launching a new miniseries based on the author’s other perennial, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, on that streaming platform in early December. I don’t know how that adaptation will play, but this new take on SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is superb in every sense of the word, creating a vital, vivid adaptation chock full of stakes and empathetic characters in the English world of 1792.
The classic story follows the Dashwood family and their struggle to survive in the proper world of English gentlemen and ladies after their patriarch’s death. Mother (Caitriona Balfe) is a caring, smart woman who raised three daughters well. They are all smart, attractive, and full of spirit. Unfortunately, they have been left penniless by Father’s passing, as it was customary in those days for a family’s estate to pass to the male kin, in this case, a Dashwood brother. He takes over the attractive property with an unkind wife, leaving the other Dashwoods to fend for themselves. Desperate to avoid poverty, Mother downsizes her family of daughters into a small cottage, hoping the two eldest can marry soon to secure their future.
The two daughters are 18-year-old Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who often tempers expectations by erring on the side of caution, and 16-year-old Marianne (Esme Creed-Mills), a teenager bristling with passion and opinions. The third daughter, Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), is still young, but she will watch her sisters closely as they learn the many lessons in love. Thus, the plot balances idealism and pragmatism, passion and purpose. Both eligible bachelorettes want to marry for love, but they must marry for solvency first and foremost. Austen puts the women through their paces; sometimes they while away the day communing with nature or art, other times scheming to encourage promising suitors to return.
Screenwriter Diana Reid and director Georgia Oakley shape the material to feel immediate, often darker than Lee’s version in ’95, and even more absurd, highlighting the silly rules society followed. Yet the filmmakers manage to ground the proceedings, striving for casting that feels younger and more vulnerable than in Lee’s film. Oakley also ensures the camera captures the Dashwoods’ plight more pointedly, making their smallish cottage dimly lit, cramped, and filled with drab furnishings. The wardrobe feels more practical here, too, with few colors breaking up the mostly browns and greys. Granted, when the Dashwoods travel to London at the top of the third act, both the interiors and formal dress turn more sumptuous, but this version of the Dashwoods’ desperation never lets us forget the corners they’ve been backed into. This version isn’t depressing, especially with the buoyant spirit of the Dashwood women, but it never loses focus on the odds against them.
Thompson and Winslet were outstanding in Lee’s version, of course, but they already felt like stars, especially in how they dominated their film. Edgar-Jones and Creed-Mills are less known, feel more like their characters, and concentrate more on the steep hill they must climb. Their reactions to their plight, the bad breaks that come their way, and the devastating disappointments feel palpable in 2026.
And yet, the film is funnier and even bawdier than it’s ever been told. Fiona Shaw gets a laugh almost every time she speaks as the busybody Mrs. Jennings, who is trying to play matchmaker for Elinor and Marianne. The ’95 film offered Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman as John Willoughby and Colonel Brandon, the intrepid suitors of the two young women, and both were big stars then. The fate of the two sisters was never much in question with those two in the cast. Here, lesser-known actors play the characters – Frank Dillane as Willoughby and Herbert Nordrum as the colonel – and that makes the story feel far less certain. They also play the vulnerable side of their characters more dominantly.
All of the players, even in the smallest roles, are well cast and lived-in, with the highest kudos going to Edgar-Jones and Creed-Mills. Creed-Mills gives Marianne eyes that can shift from judgmental to wounded on a dime. She’s almost dangerous on screen and should ensure her a range of roles in a promising future, even villains. As for Edgar-Jones, I have been waiting for her to come close to matching the brilliance of her breakthrough performance in the Hulu miniseries NORMAL PEOPLE, and in the role of Elinor she reaches exquisite heights. She presents such warmth and tenderness that you might pine for her yourself. Her work here is endlessly endearing and often heartbreaking. It’s one of the year’s best female performances and should be part of award discussions.
We will see whether this version of Austen stands the test of time as the 1995 version has, but suffice it to say, both takes on the material are splendid. This newer take offers a fresh, wholly relevant interpretation, one that makes Austen’s prose all the more relevant and touching for today’s times.
