Sense and Sensibility
(Sony Pictures, 1995)
Greg Wise courts Kate Winslet
in Sense and Sensibility Emma Thompson scores a double bull's-eye with this marvelous adaptation of Jane Austen's 1811 novel. Not only does Thompson turn in a strong (and gently humorous) performance as one of the Dashwood sisters — the one with "sense" — she also wrote the witty, wise screenplay.
Austen's tale of 19th-century manners and morals provides a large cast with a feast of possibilities, notably Kate Winslet, in her pre-Titanic flowering, as Thompson's deeply romantic sister. Winslet attracts the wooing of shy Alan Rickman (a nice change of pace from his bad-guy roles) and dashing Greg Wise, while Thompson must endure an incredibly roundabout courtship with Hugh Grant, here in fine and funny form. All of this is doled out with the usual eye-filling English countryside and handsome costumes, yet the film always seems to be about the careful interior lives of its characters.
The director, an inspired choice, is Taiwan-born Ang Lee, who brings the same exquisite taste and discreet touch he displayed in his previous Asian films (such as Eat Drink Man Woman). Thompson's script won an Oscar, and 1995 was a fine year for Jane Austen all around.
— Plot synopsis adapted from www.amazon.com
- Cast: Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson, Harriet Walter
- Director: Ang Lee
- Running time: 136 minutes
- Speaker: University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of English, Caroline Levine
- When and where: the auditorium of the Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, September 14, 2008
Admission to all the screenings is free to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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