Review: Sense and Sensibility – Austen powers

Directed by Georgia Oakley
Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, George MacKay

7/10

Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning version of Sense and Sensibility certainly casts a long shadow over this work. Still, that was 30 years ago, and director Georgia Oakley bravely accepts the challenge to bring us something that feels a little less mannered in its outlook.

The Dashwood sisters’ fortunes change when their father dies, and their half-brother inherits the manor. Without their house, they’re reliant on a distant relative’s mercy to live in a humble country cottage. The only possibility of a future is to arrange a good marriage. While the oldest sister, Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones), tries to steer the family through the hardship, she often clashes with her passionate younger sister Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles).

There’s a deliberate attempt to capture a wild naturalism about this film, a calculated shift away from rolling hills and spacious drawing rooms that often define the films about the era. Instead we were treated to rocky windswept hills, tightly packed woods, and shadowing interiors. There is a moodiness to the visual language we’re more likely to associate with Wuthering Heights adaptations, but it works here. It not merely differentiates Oakley’s work from Lee’s but also visually demonstrates the cage that is social constraints. The camera work is often closed in, giving a claustrophobic feel to the film. The character seemed trapped by the frame and the environment.

Plus, it’s closer to our current cinematic attempts at historical verisimilitude, with clothes feeling less like colorful costumes, while still being accurately designed and tailored.

This version also manages to capture that odd dichotomy that is at the heart of Austen’s novel. The circumstances that the characters find themselves in are truly awful. That your existence and economic stability are reduced to your ability to attract an eligible suitor is a terrifying reality. At the same time, there’s the audience expectation that the film has to be witty, charming, and lightly romantic—nor to dwell too much on that issue—while being in line with the social mores of the time. Oakley walks the line well, drifting a little towards a more serious side of the equation. Yet she manages to maintain the more romantic side of Marianne’s nature, rather than having the character broken by her experiences.

Esmé Creed-Miles is rather good in that regard, coming across as passionate, naive, and innocent. She maintains that romanticism and defiance, a character driven by the dictates of her heart even when common sense should really prevail. By contrast, Daisy Edgar-Jones is given the more workmanlike task of anchoring both the narrative and the family through stability and common sense. It’s an occasionally thankless task, but one she makes the most out of, conveying silent anguish as she deals with her own heartbreak. The standout is probably Fiona Shaw, turning a grotesque parody of country nobility into something with a richer inner life.

A solid take on Austen’s novel that feels like it has a little more grit to it than previous versions.

DAVID O’CONNELL