Movie review by Greg Carlson

“Blue Jean” director Georgia Oakley imagines a satisfying adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic romance/social critique “Sense and Sensibility” in the first big screen attempt since the much loved 1995 Ang Lee edition starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Oakley’s take emphasizes the bonds of family and sisterhood as much or more than the central complications involving the winding and crooked paths that Elinor and Marianne Dashwood navigate on the way to their happiness. If you look beyond theatrical releases, “Sense and Sensibility” has inspired half a dozen television productions since Lee’s movie. In other words, we call it a classic for a reason, even though many critics have pointed out that the whole thing would only last a few minutes if the characters were allowed to spill more tea and speak more openly.

But the limits and expectations of proper behavior in the class-stratified world of late-1700s England are the very ingredients that keep us coming back to Austen’s exquisite landscape. And next to the perpetually relevant castigation of the patriarchy (beginning with bullshit inheritance laws), the similarities and differences of the Dashwood sisters set the stage for our own self-reflection: Do we identify with the cautious wisdom and “sense” of Elinor or the “sensibility” and emotional intensity of Marianne? Rachel Brownstein is not the only academic to argue that the Dashwoods are much more alike than they are opposites, despite Marianne’s claim to Elinor that “You reveal nothing. I conceal nothing.”

Concealment is indisputably the coin of Austen’s realm and Oakley knows when to push and pull and tug the sentiments of the viewer. Pacing and rhythm between and within scenes give the audience a green light to nod in agreement at Elinor’s vigilance while being simultaneously swept up in Marianne’s ill-advised romance with rakish John Willoughby. Like Thompson and Winslet, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles are wonderfully matched as Elinor and Marianne. The casting of the fellows, always and especially a challenge when it comes to the initial anti-charm of Edward Ferrars and the taciturn melancholia of Colonel Brandon, is equally strong.

George MacKay plays up the decency and shyness of the quietly suffering Edward without sacrificing the little flashes of awkward humor that cement the character’s perfect suitability for Elinor. Frank Dillane brings some of the same seductive danger and oily untrustworthiness to Willoughby that he showed off to perfection in Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut “Urchin.” Herbert Nordrum, so memorable in “The Worst Person in the World,” slowly but surely wins us over as Brandon. The other Dashwood women, Caitríona Balfe as Mrs. D and Bodhi Rae Breathnach as little sis Margaret, don’t have the opportunity to steal scenes like Fiona Shaw’s delirious and (relatively) unfiltered Mrs. Jennings.

Oakley can be commended for orchestrating such a lovely new addition to the Austen-verse. Exteriors and interiors alike are beautifully photographed by Arnaud Potier. You will love Holly Blakey’s choreography. The contrast between the pretty pastoral countryside and cosmopolitan London sparks more sympathy for Elinor and Marianne once they encounter the superficially sophisticated likes of Lucy Steele (Ceara Coveney), who represents the sixth side of Austen’s double-triangle. At 132 minutes, this “Sense and Sensibility” is just a few minutes shorter than the 1995 Oscar-winner, which took home the prize for Emma Thompson’s screenplay. Both versions are comfortable places to visit. Neither wears out its welcome.