Review of Sense and Sensibility (1995) by Sam N — 03 Jul 2012

It's a beautiful movie adapted from an equally beautiful novel written by Jane Austin. This is one of those movies which are made strictly by the book and it's essential to note that Ang Lee has done a commendable job in his direction and in bringing us the joy of living the moments in the novel through the movie. The movie matched everything with the era, from the mannerisms to the countryside locale, fashion and decor to the emotions and expectations of the young ladies and the society at large. The characters were very well etched out from the book. This is superior to Pride and Prejudice which is a masterpiece in itself, since in the former, the characters carry much more weight in establishing their outstanding aura, veteran acting skills and popularity. Most were already established but rather less known who later became the legends of their own genre. This is a tale of ordinary beings in the suit of extraordinary ladies and gentlemen of the film industry. You cannot help but feel more and more for them. This movie is timeless. For the generations to come, we will have something that's quite potent in mixing the superstars in a unique cocktail of mystery, romance and retro flavor to intoxicate any literature enthusiast. He/she would care about the characters, their individual stories and all the interconnections with the finale of converging to an apropos climax. That's the experience of this extraordinary movie.

I was left speechless for quite sometime after having watched this movie despite knowing that Jane Austen fed me the same shit over and over much like the repetitive ways of Sydney Sheldon were fed to me in his own way era and genre of writings. In Austen's creations, everytime there has to be an all girls family, poor with "handsome" young adults daughters, living in countryside, ready to be married off. There would be mentioning of London and then discrediting the city, mainly understandable from her yearning to imagine what transpires there in the big city where she never lived herself in her entire life. I come from a middle middle class family of one of the biggest and busiest cities of the world, New Delhi, India. I feel like asking the ghost of Jane Austen, why u no go to London! Not everyone is a prince charming there who comes down to countryside to fall in love with cottage maids!

So, there would be 2 main characters of the daughters and they will fall in love in Jane Austen's novels. In both Pride and Prejudice (P&P) and Sense and Sensibility(S&S), the oldest daughter does get her wealthy prince charming in the end. There were only 3 daughters in S&S, 2 were important the third was just tagging along, while in Pride and Prejudice 5-6, 3 were main while the others were tagging along. In both P&P as well as S&S, the eldest one were reserved so much so that their princes were convinced they had no desire for them but to be friends, so they leave the idea of marriage with the ladies, but later the princes come around. In P&P, the second (free-willed, arrogant but sensible) and the third oldest (wild, naive and senseless) daughters were coalesced into the second oldest daughter in S&S (partly sensible and mostly free-willed). The role of the mothers is also interesting. In P&P, the mother (fat old lady) herself was persuasive and opportunistic in nature to get her daughters married off while the father had no opinion. In S&S, the father was killed in the movie as the collateral damage to make the rich girls poor and to do away with any strong father figure. Here, they introduced a distant relative (also a fat old and superimposing lady) to serve the duty of that P&P mother as in this one the mother herself is reduced to a trivial character who cries with her girls, has no opinion of herself and is lead on by her girls's lovers implied behavior in meek and bleak anticipation that they would propose and marry her daughters. Application of linear, non linear algebra (addition , subtraction and reshuffling) of characters and feelings in P&P gives you S&S or vice versa.

I can go on and on about the character analysis comparing both the novels. But considering this movie and novel as a standalone combination, you do get a treat and you do gorge upon it without any guilt, that's the beauty of the lady (Jane Austen) in her persuasion!