Sense and Sensibility (2008)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Good start, but then it gets ruined

good back-story, and good acting

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is an amazing series: the perfect casting, the acting,the music, the script! I love it all

I got the Austen virus after watching the famous 1995 adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice", which brought me to the original, wonderful book. But the disease hasn't really progressed. Other Austen works haven't impressed me half as much, and Sense & Sensibility – both the book and Emma Thompson movie – left a strange aftertaste, not at all sweet and exhilarating, as it was with P&P. So I was happy to learn that Andrew Davies, who became my idol after giving us such a perfect Darcy, created an adaptation of S&S. I eagerly watched it, hoping that his spin on the story will make it livelier and more likable for me. And I wasn't mistaken, although I cannot say that this is a great series.I really like the casting. Perhaps I would make Willoughby a little more attractive, but the whole Dashwood family and Colonel Brandon were so good, that I can forgive the choice of Dominic Cooper. Can't remember the book well, but I sense intuitively that quite a few liberties have been taken. Still, as a person who doesn't care so much for this novel, I like the story told by Andrew Davies, and except for a few things (like Marianne's visit of Willoughby mansion all by herself) I find the final product satisfying. I love to see an appealing and passionate Colonel Brandon, this adds romance and chemistry – such a gift for a romantic female viewer like me : )To be entirely honest, I expected more from Mr Davies. This is not "P&P" or "Wives and Daughters". But, after all, scriptwriter is not the only one in charge of our impressions from the film. A lot of people work on the project, and such was their view.Some places feel rushed, even when compared to Emma Thompson movie (and this series has 3 episodes!) The scenery is not light & bright & vivid green, but rainy, rugged and more gritty instead. The rhythmic pattern of the story is more choppy and impulsive than slow-boiling. If you want to relax your nerves while a beautiful story quietly unfolds, it is not the right kind of BBC adaptation. However, I still would like to say a big thank-you for this series. I enjoyed the characters, the story, the romance, and I am immensely grateful that someone keeps adapting English literature - which is a gift to humankind - in such a quality fashion.

Jane Austen sells well these days, which goes a long way towards explaining the appalling number of film adaptations let loose upon us over the past years. This miniseries, part of this and last years' (2007-2008) batch that includes a lousy Mansfield Park, an adequate Northanger Abbey and an uneven Persuasion, dwells in the long shadows of the 1995 adaptation. On the one hand, it goes to considerable lengths in trying to avoid any resemblance: it does this by including scenes that were absent there (most notably the last encounter between Elinor and Willoughby, where he explains his conduct) and excluding, where possible, scenes that were present there; by having the film begin with a steamy sex scene for which there is no reason other than the hope of whetting the appetite of the viewers; by casting as Elinor an actress as unlike the brilliant Emma Thompson as possible (and whose idea of conveying dramatic tension seems to be to open her eyes very wide and sometimes also her mouth, slightly). On the other hand though, the adaptation has been taking over ideas that occur in the 1995 film and not in the book: like turning Margaret into a well rounded and likable character, which in the book she is not (this is understandable; everybody loves cute little girls with lots of curly hair), like Edward's proposal to Elinor being received with a crying fit (which was not a very good idea to begin with). Talented actors, loving attention to period details and National Trust mansions do not by themselves a good film make. This miniseries has chosen to show Marianne falling rather early in love with Colonel Brandon. This is not only not true to the book (where it is at no point implied that Marianne holds feelings for him other than esteem and gratitude), it also waters down and distorts the core message of the story. If Marianne can overcome her feelings for Willoughby so quickly and easily, then they were not the deep love we had been hitherto led to believe, but just the trifling infatuation one (especially parents) would ordinarily expect from most seventeen-year-olds. Then, her deep distress and the illness that almost cost her life are but the tantrum of a spoiled child denied a treat. Accordingly, there is no lesson to be learned of the story, no proper appreciation of Elinor's self-control, no triumph of sense over sensibility. Admittedly, most people these days expect to be entertained, not educated by books and films (unless it were about sex), but Jane Austen deserves better treatment than this. Andrew Davies has certainly come a long way since his celebrated 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and not all of it seems to have been good to him.

This television dramatisation was broadcast in three one hour episodes on BBC1 between Tuesday 1st January 2008 and Sunday 13th January 2008. In the interview featurette on this DVD, Andrew Davies explained that he wanted to avoid this television serial being a longer version of the film and so he attempted to give this adaptation a fresh slant. Therefore, he dramatised a number of scenes that are referred to in the novel, but are not directly described by Jane Austen. So, at the start of the first episode we have Mr Willoughby's seduction of Miss Williams, in the second part we are shown Marianne's visit to Allenham with Mr Willoughby, and in episode three, there is Colonel Brandon's scene with Miss Williams and her new born baby. Furthermore, in the same interview Ann Pivcevic, the producer, stated that the production team had deliberately sought out a young cast for the major roles in order to reflect the age of the characters in the book. Elinor Dashwood, for instance, is only nineteen years old. Consequently, a couple of relative newcomers were cast in the two central roles, but fortunately both Hattie Morahan (Elinor) and Charity Wakefield (Marianne) gave excellent performances as the two Dashwood sisters, and they were ably supported by the likes of Janet McTeer as Mrs Dashwood, Dan Stevens as Edward Ferrars and David Morrissey as Colonel Brandon. Interestingly, Marianne becomes engaged to Colonel Brandon before Elinor is betrothed to Edward Ferrars in this adaptation, whereas in the novel, Marianne does not become engaged until after Edward and Elinor are married.The DVD includes a picture gallery. Another bonus feature is an interview, which last approximately half an hour, in which Ann Pivcevic, the producer, and Andrew Davies, the screenwriter, talk about the making of the television series. This short film is interspersed with clips from the TV dramatisation chosen to illustrate a number of the points made in the interview. The DVD also includes an audio commentary recorded by Ann Pivcevic, the producer, John Alexander, the director, Hattie Morahan, who plays Elinor, and Dan Stevens, who plays Edward. Charity Wakefield (Marianne) and Dominic Cooper (Willoughby) also take part in the commentary for Episode 2. The commentary was recorded with them together as a group, and they clearly got on well because it is very chatty and good humoured.