Sense and Sensibility review: Agreeable Austen adaptation lacks a pang of melancholy and warmth

Jane Austen’s 1811 debut novel, a tale of sisterhood, honour and longing, kicked off one of the most influential oeuvres in English literature. Ang Lee’s 1995 film adaptation, written to Oscar-winning effect by its star, Emma Thompson, has been referred to as the “definitive” movie version of the author’s work and provided Kate Winslet with her breakout role. In some ways, director Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean) has her work cut out as she mounts this new big-screen effort; and in some ways, she rises to the challenge.

We enter the world of the Dashwoods via middle sister Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles), lying off-centre in a meadow of long grass, her dress strewn. It’s a striking opening that describes the character before a single word is spoken. She returns home, where her mother (Caitríona Balfe) and sisters Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) await their late father’s will. To the girls’ despair, they’ve been left with just £500 a year, while their home goes to their half-brother John (Tom Brooke). In other words, a total social disaster.

The one consolation is a visit from John’s brother-in-law Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), an instant hit with the family, especially Elinor. But these happy days don’t last: the family relocates to a humble Devon cottage, where Elinor quietly nurses her heartbreak and Marianne finds love in Willoughby (Frank Dillane), a knight in shining armour who rescues her after she twists her ankle.

Sounds too good to be true? It is. Luckily, Marianne has a loyal admirer in Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum), while Elinor’s erstwhile companion Edward resurfaces.

Alan Rickman’s earlier take on the Brandon role can’t be bettered, but Nordrum brings his own calm, baritone gentleness — a warm and steady presence in the Dashwoods’ world. His feelings for Marianne are never in doubt here; if anything, it’s she who feels unwritten within Diana Reid’s otherwise largely strong screenplay. For a character so overflowing with sensitivity and a search for passion, she could have given us more. Creed-Miles handles her material well enough, but more scenes with the evocative care of that opening shot would have paid off.

While the casting is full of potential, with a wealth of actors who look like they’ve stepped straight out of the Regency, much of the humour and nuance in Austen’s writing goes untapped. Edgar-Jones plays Elinor’s “sense” so convincingly that it becomes too easy for the drama to downplay her feelings for Ferrars, making the romantic ending feel like neat resolve rather than immense relief.

All the classic period-drama tropes are on show: exquisite landscape shooting; comic mileage from the Dashwoods’ ridiculous distant cousin (a scene-stealing Fiona Shaw); girls working overtime to hide their gawking whenever a man enters the room. But what’s missing is a real rapport between the two main sisters — that closeness that makes you believe they grew up in each other’s pockets. Compare this with the warmth that Greta Gerwig captured in Little Women (2019), and the gap is obvious.

Crucially, there’s nothing particularly new or personal to a film that feels so rote — though more traditionalist “Janeites” certainly won’t be complaining about a technically faithful adaptation. The film-makers show a lack of confidence in the material and their ability to remould it; the actors occasionally seem to be reading lines without actually inhabiting the story.

If you want rolling West Country hills, crumbling cottages and long afternoons in cluttered drawing rooms, you’ll be satisfied. Rattling carriages with bonnet-clad women gazing out the window? It’s all there. And, of course, you’ve got your ballroom scenes and a life-threatening fever. It’s an agreeable adaptation. But, to paraphrase Marianne: we require so much!

What you won’t get here is a certain pang of melancholy and warmth — that signature Austen blush that her writings, and their best adaptations, leave you with. And we’re robbed of the weddings entirely: a baffling omission, and perhaps the reason one leaves without that glow.

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Sense and Sensibility is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25 September 2026.

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