Sense and Sensibility

In the 1995 adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Sense and Sensibility, Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet play Dashwood sisters Elinor and Marianne, whose recent loss of wealth has them looking for suitable partners. Hugh Grant’s Edward Ferrars and Alan Rickman’s Colonel Brandon show their interest, but circumstances regarding love and money complicate their relationships with the women. For this film, Thompson was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, but she eventually took home the Screenwriting Oscar for adapting the beloved novel. Thompson added scenes and lines which did so well, the film is often. credited as starting the Austen renaissance in modern cinema. The performances are unforgettable, but it’s the pieces—the lush dresses, sweeping hills, grand mansions, homely cottages, paired with a lovely script—that make it a beautiful whole.

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects of marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. After Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son. These circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's wife and daughters without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.