janeTHE STORY – Three sisters experience love and heartbreak after they’re forced to leave their family estate with their widowed mother and move to a humble cottage.
THE CAST – Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum & Fiona Shaw
THE TEAM – Georgia Oakley (Director) & Diana Reid (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 132 Minutes
Jane Austen’s novels have remained immensely popular for centuries. Though firmly rooted in the cultural mores of the time, she revealed timeless truths about the human condition that remain relatable despite changing times. This perhaps says more about how little many societal views towards women have changed in the two hundred-plus years since Austen’s novels were published, but even then, scholars and casual readers alike keep returning to Austen and debating the author’s intent with her stories of familial duty bristling against the all-powerful emotion of the human heart. Even today, critics still argue over how feminist her stories are, especially with each new film, television, or stage adaptation of an Austen novel.
By now, there have been so many adaptations of her work that it’s hard to imagine one that feels completely fresh without making significant changes to the story. However, with just the slightest shift in perspective, Georgia Oakley has done just that with her winning new adaptation of Austen’s indelible first novel, “Sense and Sensibility”. While keeping the warmth and wit which Austen has become known for completely intact, Diana Reid’s generous screenplay leaves room for the darker aspects of the author’s work to creep in, and, in centering the experience of the emotive Marianne more than that of the more rational Elinor, creates a new lens through which to view the story, making this feel like a version that will open up the world of Jane Austen to the next generation.
By now, you probably know the story of “Sense and Sensibility”: The Dashwood family patriarch has died, and son John (Tom Brooke) has chosen to take most of the inheritance for himself and his wife, Fanny (Stacy Martin), leaving Mrs. Dashwood (Caitríona Balfe) and her daughters Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles), and Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) essentially homeless. They must rely on the kindness of distant relatives, Mrs. Jennings (Fiona Shaw) and Sir John Middleton (Turlough Convery), for a place to live, where Marianne meets two potential suitors: The young rake John Willoughby (Frank Dillane) and the older, more reserved Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum). Meanwhile, Elinor has been waiting with bated breath for word from her own potential love interest, Fanny’s brother Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), who clearly sparked with her during their last days at the family estate but has given her nothing but silence since. A matchmaking trip to London with Mrs. Jennings forces Elinor and Marianne to confront some harsh truths about their suitors and their own place in the world before they get their relatively happy endings.
Not much has changed from Austen’s original story, but Oakley’s film shifts the emphasis, especially compared with other adaptations. While usually presented more from elder sister Elinor’s perspective, this version begins and ends with Marianne, emphasizing how the next generation’s future will differ from the previous one, in part because of the very qualities that set Marianne apart from the rest of her family. Whereas her mother and elder sister are trapped in the ways of the past, Marianne readily breaks from tradition, unafraid to do and say everything women have been told to hide. In many ways, the film offers reassurance to the present day that the next generation will be okay, because they can see the world more clearly and can thus, just maybe, make a better world. After all, we now know what many in Austen’s time did not: that a future in which love marriages are more common than arranged marriages has led to longer, more successful marriages and mostly freer, happier people. This lets the audience fully feel the bittersweet quality of Marianne’s ultimate fate, in which she sacrifices some of her “sensibility” for some of Elinor’s “sense” in choosing a partner. However, Reid and Oakley’s decision to end the film where they do feels like an acknowledgment that their version of Marianne is a woman ahead of her time, living in a time when the only two acceptable endings for such a character would be marriage or death. That’s not the case anymore, which leads to an ending that honors Austen while also feeling incredibly modern.
The cast also gives this “Sense and Sensibility” a more modern edge while still feeling true to the period in which it’s set. Each performer latches on to their character’s easily recognizable type and delivers their more classical dialogue with a thoroughly contemporary flair, whether it’s the deftly underplayed mean-girl energy of Ceara Coveney’s Lucy Steele, the joyful scenery-chewing tomfoolery of Shaw’s Mrs. Jennings, or the fuckboy bravado of Dillane’s Willoughby (which falls away to reveal something far more sincere in a knockout scene in the film’s second half). Nordrum’s stoic Col. Brandon occasionally comes across as too stiff, but MacKay’s swoon-worthy Edward is a masterclass in restraint. Both he and Edgar-Jones are so locked into their characters’ noble qualities that their eventual separation hurts all the more because they make their unspoken emotions so clear. A late scene where Edward and Elinor walk right up to the line of expressing their feelings for each other before pulling back at the last second will fuel hundreds of TikTok edits memorializing their mutual longing and respect.
Fantastic as the ensemble is, though, the story is about Elinor and Marianne, and both Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles deliver. Edgar-Jones has a refined quality to her screen presence that makes her a perfect Elinor; her longing for Edward is so palpable that everyone jokes about it, but her commitment to propriety is too strong to admit it. It isn’t until Elinor learns to embrace some of her sister’s emotional forthrightness that she gets what she wants, and Edgar-Jones charts that journey beautifully. Creed-Miles arrives with a much shorter résumé than her co-stars, but she more than holds her own in a star-making performance. It’s hardly a surprise when people praise Marianne’s beauty, as the actress exudes an inner beauty that matches her outward appearance. Despite the grace and joy that radiate from her, though, Creed-Miles adds a more modern staunchness that cuts through the Regency Romance of it all. She’s believably girlish in her infatuation with Willoughby, but she embraces a directness in her speech that belies the character’s youth (she’s a very believable sixteen-year-old) and environment. It’s a testament to her skill as an actress that, even though Marianne’s emotional breakdown in the film’s last act doesn’t come as a surprise, it still feels shocking because Creed-Miles shows Marianne’s strength so thoroughly.
What Reid and Oakley understand deep in their bones, though, is that Marianne is a victim of her environment. She can believe in the power of true love all she wants, but she was still raised in an environment that told her every day that her only worth is tied to her dowry and her husband; that as a woman, she has no other value. The film’s re-centering of Marianne and “sensibility” brings the story fully into the present, setting her as the audience insert character, constantly questioning the traditions and values with which she was raised. Oakley directs the film with young Marianne in mind, emphasizing her more modern qualities by bringing an almost Brontë-esque darkness to the film. Unlike “good daughter” Elinor, who possesses the genteel qualities prized by the society of the time, Marianne is as wild as the moors in which she prefers to spend her time, and the film attunes itself to her sensibilities, prizing the humble, joyful, more free-spirited life of the countryside over the stately, staid, closed-off life of the city elite in London.
The production and costume design bring the book’s spaces to life with a strong blend of reverence and reality, emphasizing the Dashwoods’ status as former gentry. Arnaud Potier’s gorgeous cinematography immerses us in this world, suffusing it with a warm glow that only adds to the film’s considerable familial warmth. While the film looks handsome, it never feels remote thanks to the smart shot selection that keeps us constantly connected to the characters. Roger Goula’s score is pure romance, sweeping you up on waves of emotion, with some surprising modern touches throughout.
By doing so much work to give Jane Austen’s characters a more contemporary feel, Oakley has made a “Sense and Sensibility” that feels timeless, one that will endear the author to a whole new generation of women learning how to balance their own needs with what society expects from them. While those things may have changed in the two centuries since Austen wrote the novel, she still has much to teach us. Oakley’s interpretation, entertaining in all the ways Austen has always been while carving out an identity all its own, is immaculate, showing there’s still plenty of new life to be found in old texts.
