Sense and Sensibility – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Georgia Oakley
Writers – Diana Reid, based on a book by Jane Austen
Stars – Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe

Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen’s first novel and was published anonymously, as was the custom for female novelists in 1811. It recounts the romantic stories of two young sisters, Elinor Dashwood (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who represents “sense” in the title and her sister Marianne (Esme Creed-Miles), who encapsulates “sensibility”. The story begins with the death of their father. He has left Norland Park in all its grandeur, where they have grown up, to their elder half-brother John Dashwood (Tom Brooke). His wife Fanny (Stacy Martin) encourages John to be less than generous in providing for his stepmother, Mrs Dashwood (Caitriona Balfe), and her three daughters, including the youngest, Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). So much so that their plight is pitiful, and Mrs Dashwood moves her family to a modest cottage in comparatively remote Devon, made available to her by a distant cousin, Sir John Middleton (Turlough Convery), whose mother-in-law is Mrs Jennings (Fiona Shaw).

The prospect of a good marriage is important for a young woman whose fortune is small. That is where the Dashwood sisters are situate. At Norland Park, Elinor first encounters Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), who is the younger brother of Fanny Dashwood. There is more than attraction, but his marital status is complicated by an arranged engagement since childhood to one Lucy Steele (Ceara Coveney). Meanwhile, Marianne, sixteen years old, has caught the attention of thirty-something-year-old Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum), whom she initially dismisses in favour of the much younger and far more engaging John Willoughby (Frank Dillane). Marriage is the name of the game, and Mrs Jennings is obsessed by it. Oakley depicts Mrs Dashwood and her three daughters close to nature in their rural Devon retreat. There is an earthiness about their existence, and overall Oxley conveys the sense that Mrs Dashwood is doing her best in straitened circumstances.

Oxley has chosen to keep the script as written by Austen. As a device, it underlines that we are dealing with a time past. The acting of  Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles defines the difference in temperament of the two sisters, with Balfe and Breathnach playing valuable supporting roles. The Dashwood sisters and Mrs Dashwood are very much a family. Their lives are enriched by the gossipy Mrs Jennings, with Shaw having a ball as she keeps the conversation firmly fixed on marriage. Of the male characters, Mackay is entirely convincing as the conflicted Ferrars, while Dillane makes for a fine cad as Willoughby. The only query is that it is a little difficult to understand that Marianne could become fascinated by Nordrum’s rather stolid Col. Brandon, but the course of true love takes surprising paths.

This is an enjoyable adaptation of Austen’s classic novel. It is a fine addition to the canon that surrounds Jane Austen. Her ability to engage an audience remains undimmed.