MOVIES: Sense & Sensibility (2026, Georgia Oakley)

When I was a senior in high school, I had to read Pride & Prejudice. It is the closest I ever came in my academic career to not finishing an assigned book. I struggled mightily to slog through that book, trying to figure out why I was supposed to care whether or not these sisters managed to get themselves married off in the proper sequence. (For some reason, that idea -- that the younger sisters couldn't get married until the older ones had -- seemed especially silly to me). And every decade or so, I find myself thinking that I should give Jane Austen another try, but I have continued to crash into her novels as if they were brick walls.

And it must be something about her prose, because when I see the films adapted from her books, I usually like them. I very much liked both the Gwyneth Paltrow and the Anya Taylor-Joy versions of Emma (and its looser adaptation, Clueless); I adored Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman's adaptation of Lady Susan; I even liked the 1999 film of Mansfield Park, which I remember Austen purists being terribly upset by.

But even in cinematic form, I struggle the most with the "marrying off the sisters" stories, Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility. And this new adaptation continues the tradition.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie -- smartly cast, well acted, handsomely produced -- and it strongly emphasizes the financial realities that make the Dashwood sisters' search for husbands so important, more so than I remember the 1995 Ang Lee film doing. But I still find it hard to care. I understand full well that this says far more about me than it does about Austen or about Oakley's movie.

On the off chance that you are not an Austenite, the story begins with Mrs. Dashwood (Catriona Balfe) and her three daughters nervously checking the mail each day, waiting for news of the will of Mr. Dashwood. They hope for a generous inheritance, perhaps even the family home. But alas, the home goes to Mr. Dashwood's son from his first marriage, and the financial settlement is less than the women had hoped. That makes it more urgent than ever that the two daughters of marriageable age, Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esme Creed-Miles), find husbands, preferably rich ones.

Bring on the suitors: Edward Ferrars (George McKay), John Willoughby (Frank Dillane), and Colonel "No First Name" Brandon (Herbert Nordrum) (on a shallow note, these are collectively the least sexy batch of suitors I can remember seeing in an Austen adaptation) and the stories of turbulent courtships, romantic betrayals, and (of course) happy endings.

More than most Austen movies, this one is aware of the natural world outside the parlors and ballrooms. From the opening scene, it's a world of muddy petticoats, dirty fingernails, and clothes soaked through by sudden storms. The cottage to which the Dashwoods are forced to relocate after leaving the family home is delightfully cramped and grubby (fine work by set decorator Celia De La Hey)).

The cast is all solid, though none of the leads are as memorable as those in the 1995 version. The most memorable performance is that of Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings; she's giving a masterclass in the subtle variations that can be wrung from a braying cackle.

I liked the movie as much as I will ever like any version of this story, I suppose, and I imagine that Austenites will be quite happy with it.