Sense and Sensibility

Rating:
Summary: hate it
Review: what else can i say i hate it. well everybody has the right to their opinion, haven't they? emma thompson made me want to throw up and i foud it hard to watch this video to the end

Rating:
Summary: the good definetly outweighs the questionable
Review: Okay, so ELinor was supposed to be 19 and Brandon only 35. Emma Thompson fudged with the ages a little. So what? If I was Emma Thompson and over 19 and writing this screenplay I would do so myself. There were a couple of times, I grant you, that I did wish that Elinor was being played by a younger actress. But only a couple of times and I have watched this movie more times than I care to report. And Alan Rickman was over 35 but he's ALAN RICKMAN and he provided a beautiful portrayl of Colonel Brandon. As for Ms. Thompson's alterations and additions they were for the most part not only neccessary for a screen adaptation but delightful and on reading the book I missed the scene about the atlas. Ms. Thompson's writing is quite charming and a delightful companion to the book.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie but can be better with different cast
Review: It is an excellent movie but it would've been better with different cast. The story was very good in the sense that you wanted to know what would happen next. I saw this dvd and I will try and get it to own it. I will put it with my favorite DVDs.

Rating:
Summary: Some more boring film work from Boring film maker Ang Lee.
Review: This film is so boring. So boring that it makes GONE WITH THE WILD look like a action John Woo film. Do not get this film.

Rating:
Summary: English Romance At Its Finest
Review: Jane Austen is a fine writer, but her wordiness tends to drain the life from many of her characters. Thankfully, Emma Thompson recognized the limitations of the novel and adapted her screenplay accordingly, enhancing the humor of the original story and adding more drama to make the film more enchanting. A cast was then chosen, made up of very talented thespians, including Miss Thompson herself. Add to that splendid English landscapes, excellent directing, and superb cinematography, and what emerges is a modern masterpiece.

This is not a movie for action fans; it is far too cerebral and requires a serious attention span. For those who enjoy a good love story well told, this is it. The characters are three-dimensional and their dilemmas full of human drama, bound as they are by the morals and manners of the times. Three sisters and their mother are left virtually penniless by the stricture against females inheriting property then in place in English law. The half-brother to the Dashwood women receives it all, but his selfish wife talks him out of helping his stepmother and half-sisters. It is up to the two older girls---sensible Eleanor and passionate Marianne---to seek their fortunes in romance while lacking a dowry to help them.

Eleanor finds her soulmate in shy, retiring Edward Ferrars, brother of the selfish sister-in-law. Her budding romance is shelved when his sister makes it clear that Eleanor is "unsuitable" for Edward. The sisters and their mother then go to stay in a cottage owned by a kindly relative, Sir John, and his mother-in-law, the irrepressible Mrs. Jennings. The old woman is a confirmed gossip and matchmaker, bound to see one of the two sisters hitched up to Colonel Brandon, the most eligible bachelor in the area.

Brandon first sees Marianne singing a melancholy song and is incurably smitten. She in turn loses her heart to a dashing young man named Willoughby, who is her ideal of a Victorian-era gentleman, complete with a pocket book of sonnets. Brandon, who loves her more than his own happiness, steps aside and even encourages their relationship, despite his dislike for the handsome rogue.

Things take an unexpected turn for the worse for both sisters---Willoughby drops Marianne and flees to London with no explanation and Eleanor discovers that Edward is engaged to a shallow young woman named Lucy Steele. The ensuing twists and turns in the plot make this film both agonizing and entertaining to watch. Mercifully, everyone winds up happy at the end with the right person as a spouse.

The whole film is solidly done, but it is the acting that really shines. Thompson is perfect for the role of the calmer sister, while Winslett is brilliant as the mercurial Marianne. Grant is endearing as the gentle Edward; Rickman finally gets to display his considerable ability to act the part of a very good and unselfish man. The rest of the cast keeps pace with the leads, and Hugh Laurie is indescribably funny as the sarcastic Mr. Palmer. One very beautiful aspect of this movie, along with the tendency to get drawn into the story, is the haunting and evocative musical score.

All in all, this is a wonderful example of a film genre that is so often overlooked in today's world---period romance. More movies like this one desperately need to be produced. Buy this one today because it's a gem.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite Austen, but a wonderful...
Review: movie!! E. Thompson actually added to the humor of the story (at the same time making it quite a bit darker). We should all read Austen's books, but this movie adapt. is worth seeing again and again...

Rating:
Summary: Love That Movie
Review: What more could I say about this movie that hasn't been said. It's the kind of movie you watch when you're feeling down. It's a pick-me-up movie. Spectacular settings, performers and acting. Love that Emma Thompson. Kate Winslet is adorable. Would love Alan Rickman with a bag over his head. I highly recommend this movie to all Jane Austen fans and lovers of period pieces.

Rating:
Summary: I love this movie
Review: I haven't seen this movie in a while, but I want to buy it for my collection because I know that it is one I will want to watch again and again. It is a great love story.

Rating:
Summary: As a Jane Austen lover, this film amazed me!
Review: I was disappointed to read a recent review that found little to praise in this splendid rendition of Austen's timeless classic. I agree with "Emily McB" that Emma Thompson did seem a bit too old to be playing a 19 year old, but who could have represented Elinor Dashwood's character more wonderfully? The greatest thing about this film is that it stayed true to Jane Austen's tone. In writing the script, Thompson paid reverence to the drama of the story while not forgetting the humor. If Jane could have made the movie herself, I am certain it would have come close to this.

Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen couldn't get better...
Review: I think this is one of those rare films that manage to be actually better than the books they were based on. Sense and Sensibility is widely believed to be Jane Austen's worst work - it was her first - but this movie is a wonderful adaptation. The screenplay couldn't have been better and Emma Thompson deserved the Oscar. Somehow I'm surprised it was Kate Winslet who got nominated for her acting, for somehow I preferred Emma Thompson who catches your attention in every scene. Watch the scene, for instance, when she says - "What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering? For weeks, Marianne, I have had this pressing
on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single
creature ... Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have produced proof enough of a broken heart. Even for you."
You understand Elinor's character as you never have before in this one scene. In fact, it is scenes like this that manage to turn this movie from a comedy to a drama. While as much Jane Austen's wit as it is possible to transfer to celluloid is here, the theme of filial love and attachment which Jane Austen never quite managed to actually write appear, which makes this much more satisfying. In Pride and Prejudice, for instance, the climax of the book, when Mr. Darcy finally proposed to Elizabeth, Jane Austen switches from direct to indirect speech, indicating some sort of inability to write about the strongest emotions directly. The emotions are always implied, never actually described. The movie manages to add this dimension to a book that isn't quite my favourite. Other favourite scenes - Willoughby quoting Shakespeare's Sonnet 119 to Marianne, and the scene where she recites it in a thunderstorm. Neither scene is in the book, but it never seems out of place.
Watch this movie - one of the best I've seen in the past few years.