Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen



                                                                    Cast- Just the 5 main characters
Elinor Dashwood- Emma Thompson
Marianne Dashwood- Kate Winslet
Edward Ferrars- Hugh Grant
John Willoughby-Greg Wise
Colonel Brandon-Alan Rickman

When Mr. Henry Dashwood dies, leaving all his money to his first wife's son John Dashwood, his second wife and her three daughters are left with no permanent home and very little income. Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters (Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret) are invited to stay with their distant relations, the Middletons, at Barton Park.Once at Barton Park, Elinor and Marianne discover many new acquaintances, including the retired officer and bachelor Colonel Brandon, and the gallant and impetuous John Willoughby...(from Sparknotes..)
Both sisters are heartbroken when their lovers spurn them..
I watched the movie on tele yesterday. I was supposed to study but i excused myself in the name of research (I am doing Jane Austen for lit) and watched this instead. Hahaha! I missed  5 minutes of the beginning and a few minutes here and there.
It was the 1995 one. I recognized Rose ( Marianne) from Titanic and Snape (Colonel Brandon) from Harry Potter. *grin*
I liked the story. It had an interesting twist to it.It had an irony to it- *spoiler alert* how Elinor and Marianne find their love are conflicting to their character i.e. Marianne finds her love the way Elinor would think appropriate and vice versa!
The society back then seemed so courteous! The bits where there was tension on  screen between the lovers  frustrated me. Because despite whatever emotion they felt, they had to be so formal with each other! 
And i kept mentally comparing it with society and culture now. We are so informal and liberal. Back then so much thought and importance was giving to dressing, greeting, expressing, talking, behavior and every little thing you did. Its insane when you think about the dramatic changes our society has gone through!
I didn't so much find the male characters attractive except Willoughby (who i thought was cute) and Colonel Brandon for his kind and persistent character.Among the ladies..mm..Elinor and Marianne were pretty and Miss Grey (from the little glimpse i got) was too! Other than that not so much the rest. Margaret as very cute too!
For some odd reason i hoped for Maragret to have a big role in the story, and i wish Willoughby had more screen time! I think Colonel Brandon among the three lovers got the most screen time!
But somehow i had an uneasy sense about him throughout the movie.I got a feeling of suspicion towards him, i guess its because of his role in Harry Potter. But i think thats what credits him for his excellent acting skills!

Overall i would give the movie a 4 on 5!
A slightly random piece of information..while watching the movie, at one point i got a feeling of familiarity with one screen shot and realised that in the "Which Jane Austen character are you?" i got Elinor Dashwood! :P...Which one did you get?



Comments

  1. It frustrates me as well seeing all that tension and I do love the courteousness of it all though. :D I loved this movie! ^-^ Great Review!

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  2. LOL - i can see how snape can influence how you see col. brandon. i liked this version the best so far.

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  3. I'm thrilled that finally, after reading so many books and so many reviews on your blog, I have one that is on a classic.
    I have mixed feelings about Jane Austen's works, though I find all of them interesting. For some reason, I always feel that her writing is very layered. What is obvious is that she writes about people, society, romance etc in a way that is typical of the age and time in which she lived. If you are not careful, you kind of assume that she completely believes in the motivations and actions of her characters who never ever seem to think of anything beyond the confines of their own immediate environment or circumstances. In that, her books are very different from other 'period' books like, say, 'Gone with the wind'. But, the more I read her books, the more I get this sneaky feeling that even while she seems most sympathetic with a character in her story, she is in some way laughing at them...

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  5. Speaking of films made on Jane Austen books, there are so many and all made so well. I really liked 'Sense and sensibility'. It's setting, the actors, everything seemed to fit exactly into the way I'd imagined it.
    Did you know that there is a beautiful contemporary Tamil film adaptation of 'Sense and Sensibility', with Tabu playing the role of Elinor and Aishwarya playing the role of Marianne?
    Have you seen 'Pride and Prejudice'? Or this film about Jane Austen called 'Becoming Jane'? Or, this really fun film called 'The Jane Austen book club'.
    I would definitely recommend the last one. In it, a group of women in today's world, come together from different walks of life to start a book club dedicated to sharing their experience of reading/re-reading all of the old Jane Austen classics. Through them, you look at Austen's work again, out of the context of the time in which she based them, and see how many things she wrote of then still matter in exactly the same ways to women living in a world that is completely different from the world which Austen's original characters inhabited. Though many might think of it as a 'Chick flick', I really enjoyed it. You might too.

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  6. You Elinor!!!! I would have pegged you as more of a Marianne. :^)

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