Sense and Sensibility Review by Beth Ann Griese

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Starring	Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant
Director	Ang Lee
Year	1995
What it's worth		Full price (See this movie at whatever cost!)

When the movie opens, Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) has just been widowed. Since this is Victorian-age England, she cannot inherit her husband's estate, so it passes to her stepson instead, who promptly sets up Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters, Elinor (Thompson), Marianne (Kate Winslet), and Margaret (Emile Francois) with a trifling stipend to live on. The four women must now find ways to make do on their budget and, for the two older daughters, find love and marriage without a dowry.

Coincidence reigns supreme in this story, fickle fate having more than her usual share of fun with chance meetings and lucky happenstances. Men do, of course, manage to find their way into the remote lives of the Dashwoods, much to the delight of all four women. Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) is the first to appear, and to immediately start making doe eyes at Elinor. As is necessary for any good plot, though, chance, cruel circumstance, and a healthy dash of mystery takes the two apart. The same happens to the younger daughter, Marianne, and John Willoughby (Greg Wise), a dashing young neighbor, all while Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) sighs longingly for her, even though she doesn't show the least bit of interest in him.

That much setup alone can keep a good story going for a couple of hours, and much more happens along the way to keep the plot suitably complex. Great pains are taken to demonstrate the conventions of the time, including the games between the sexes (which, it seems, were just as complicated then as now) and proper behavior. Thompson's character is an expert in proper behavior, and watching her in some scenes, where she knows what they know but they all must act as if they don't know what they all know, is marvelous. Emma Thompson is one of my favorite actresses, mostly for this exact ability to express so much more than what her lines are saying.

The middle sister, Marianne, cares less for convention and much more for finding the ideal romance. She's a lover of romantic poetry and literature, and believes without a doubt that every line of it will come true someday for her. The movie's central theme is shattering both of these women's ideal notions - one of propriety and self-reliance, the other of romance and True Love - and finding a better reality underneath.

The relationship between these four women is a well-woven one, a wonderful portrayal of a family. They give each other their space while, at the same time, they move in concert. They understand each others' thoughts while still being completely bewildered by them. And, true to the typical "period piece" movie, it's all filmed against a lush backdrop of costumes and grand stages.

Sense and Sensibility does move slowly, at times seeming to leave some threads completely unattended for a while before picking them up again, and by the end, its all woven together a little too neatly for reality. If you tend to nod off at quiet scenes, you'd probably do better to not pay a ticket price for a nap. But for the rest of us, Sense and Sensibility provides quiet humor, endearing characters, and a great story.

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