Sisterly sensibility in focus as Austen classic returns to big screen

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility has been adapted for the screen, stage and radio multiple times since its literary debut in 1811, when it was simply attributed to "A Lady".

This year the Dashwood sisters are on the big screen once more in an adaptation from director Georgia Oakley and Australian screenwriter Diana Reid.

But how do you make a generation that is more familiar with Tiktok than dowry connect to the two-century old story?

"I find period dramas, you can feel a little distant from them because they're wearing clothes we wouldn't wear and it's so of its time," Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays Elinor Dashwood, said.

"And yet, even though this film does feel very bedded in the classic, there is an immediacy and a freshness to [Oakley's] filmmaking that makes these women feel like they exist today."

The sisterhood

Set in the late 18th century, Sense and Sensibility details the constricting social hierarchy dealt with by women of the time, and the elder Dashwood sisters' trials and tribulations with love and heartache.

Elinor and Marianne (Esmé Miles-Creed) are left without an estate after their father dies unexpectedly, leaving them with an impoverished future unless they marry up to secure their station and their mother's comfort.

The stress of the situation causes clashes between practical Elinor and her lovesick, free-spirited younger sister Marianne. Edgar-Jones says she felt the weight of the text's illustrious history when stepping in the role of Elinor.

"With any brilliant beloved book adaptation there's always a feeling of how … do we honour this as best we can?" she says.

"It really felt exciting to think about what our filmmaker Georgia is going to find within the story that she's interested in exploring.

"That's the great thing about brilliant literature. It's why we have so many adaptations of Shakespeare plays.

"Writing like Austen's needs to be explored time and time again because there's so much to mine and dig."

Deviating from the text, Oakley and Reid emphasise the bonds and bounds of sisterhood between Elinor, Marianne and their little sister Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach).

Creed-Mills says she appreciated the space she was allowed to explore the character of Marianne.

"I think [Marianne] gives zero f***s about securing someone," she said.

"What she declares is that what she's looking for is somebody who aligns with her in every single way, intellectually. She's like, 'You must love the same things I do and be as passionate as me.' That's what she's searching for."

"In a wonderful way, this is a film about balance between these two sisters and their arcs cross in a beautiful way," Edgar-Jones agrees.

"By the end of the film Eleanor learns to tap into her wilder, messier emotional side."

Love and marriage

While Oakley and Reid enrich the connection between the two older Dashwoods, they also shine a light on Margaret, who is most concerned with the family's finances.

"I think Margaret is very tapped in. She's so young and she signifies how young people absorb everything around them and then they puppet it back to you in a really interesting way," Creed-Mills says.

"You get these really acute social observations through younger characters. She says a few things along the lines of, 'I hope my husband is very rich'. There's a sadness to that, because marriage was a social contract. Women couldn't really explore love from a position of autonomy or self-sufficiency."

Edgar-Jones says that while Austen might not have referred to them as such, the Dashwood sisters experience their fair share of modern experiences, including love-bombing and ghosting.

"Austen was exploring the female experience and the dynamics of romance," Edgar-Jones says.

"Even though this was written 200 years ago, we still experience love very much in the same way, even though what they were waiting for was a letter response rather than a text.

"It's why her books are continually explored, it's why she's kind of the kernel of so many rom-coms and romances we watch today. I think it's just such a testament to the quality of her writing."