Rating: 
Summary: Sense & Sensibility
Review: This is beautifully photographed and well-cast. Emma Thompson did a wonderful job with the screen play, keeping it close to the original. Lovers of Jane Austen will love this!
Rating: 
Summary: video is great - widescreen anamorphic DVD is AWFUL
Review: I love Sense & Sensibility, so much so I have worn out my VHS copy. So I was thrilled to get the DVD version - UNTIL I WATCHED IT. The "widescreen anamorphic" format is very distorted. The full width is there but they force the height to fill the screen, thus unnaturally "stretching" the actors. Wait for a letterbox version before buying the dvd.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Austen adaptation, one of the greatest films as well
Review: The story of the strong though opposite Dashwood sisters resonates strongly with women of all generations. Strangely, I appreciated this movie even more after reading the incredible book because of how wonderfully the characters are brought to life. Winslet and Thompson are perfect in their respective roles, showing the faults of being entirely sensible (Elinor) and overly emotional (Marianne). These female characters are some of the strongest ever written and I am grateful to the cast and Ang Lee for bringing them to film in an age where women are increasingly portrayed as objects.
Rating:
Summary: For once, a movie that is actually as good as the book
Review: Ang Lee has done a magnificent job of bringing Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" to the screen. The acting, directing and screenplay are terrific. Emma Thompson is wonderful as Elinor Dashwood and Greg Wise is excellent as the heartbreaker Willoughby. I've always had a problem with the character of Marianne; she is so ridiculous that you just want to slap some sense into her; but Kate Winslet's memorable performance actually makes her more sympathetic than she appears in the book. With all the great acting by the lead and supporting cast, the picture is stolen by Hugh Grant, who is absolute perfection as the bumbling Edward Ferrars. The movie more than does justice to the book; Jane Austen would be proud.
Rating:
Summary: This has it all - great cinematography, characters....
Review: If you are the romantic type, and you love "period films", this is for you. Beautiful costumes, cinematography, and script! It just reconfirms your faith in the power of love!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect sense
Review: This is as close to perfection as it gets. Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet are amazing. Their portrayal of sisterly love is flawless. Hugh Grant is charming as usual. I was so drawn into this story by all the characters that I forgot I was sitting on my couch watching a screen. The next to last scene is so beautiful-I dare you not to cry.
Rating:
Summary: Flawless film. DVD makes it even better.
Review: Clearly this film is as fine a literatry adaption as there is. Thompson's tight script left the movie feeling as fully developed as the 5-hour BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. Particuarly of note, the DVD edition includes a wonderful scene between Miss Dashwood (Thompson) and Mr. Ferras where they actually kiss! Jane Austen would be shocked but you modern viewer will love it.
Rating:
Summary: delightful!
Review: A lovely costume drama, witty & spare performances by Emma Thompson & Hugh Grant (among others), & clever Jane Austen prose. What more could you ask for?
Rating:
Summary: Perfection!
Review: My favourite movie. So romantic and so funny, often at the very same moment. I love the contrast between the formal manners - Hugh Grant in his high collar bowing stiffly to the curtseying ladies - and the blazing passions below the surface. Emma Thompson's script brings Jane Austen to life for a modern audience without ever seeming to step out of period - a difficult thing to do, witness most other period dramas on film.Ang Lee's direction draws the best out of a wonderful cast, and the screen is filled with glorious visual images. The silent and motionless shot of the formal garden in early morning sunshine, seen through the window after a night of crisis, has an exquisite beauty that seems almost Chinese... And in the scene where Elinor is left to drink a cup of tea on the stairs with the rest of the family sobbing in their rooms, the way that the camera pulls back and looks down on the gleaming disk of the tea's surface is the work of a master. Then the images of the men on horseback with cloaks swirling - Willoughby's first appearance, and the scene where Colonel Brandon gallops away between the trees... so romantic! The relationship between the two sisters is very moving, and beautifully played, as in the scene on the hillside - 'There I fell, and there I first saw Willoughby...' OK, so Emma Thompson is about 20 years too old for Elinor, but where are you going to get a teenage actress who could give such a great performance? And Kate Winslet is perfect and enchanting as Marianne. Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, and all of the cast down to the minor characters are superb too. A great movie, and a joyous and deeply satisfying experience.
Rating:
Summary: Finally! I'm not alone!
Review: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have read other people complaining that Ann Firbank was too old in the BBC's Persuasion. I always thought the same thing about Elinor and Marianne here. It is nice to know that I am not the only one to notice things like that. In all, a great movie. Although liberties were taken with the story. Many things are added- Margaret gets a biger part and has a hiding fetish- and some are deleted- Willoughby's visit on hearing Marianne is deathly ill and Sir John Middleton's wife, and Lucy steele's sister. Mostly these have little effect on the movie.
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