Sense and Sensibility (2026)

Score: 2 / 5

Another year, another Jane Austen adaptation. Unfortunately, this year's theatrical feature is something less than memorable. Georgia Oakley's grounded and tactile vision for Sense and Sensibility offers a few notable pleasures -- it will surely do well among Austen apologists and completionists -- but even as I walked out of the theater I found my mind drifting wildly and unable to remember much of what I'd just seen. Admittedly, the material is perhaps my least favorite of Austen's novels in terms of plot, characterization, and theming, mostly because it's always felt underbaked to me, as if it was a parable Austen attempted to flesh out.

As an adaptation, this film delivers the source material into the arguably more palatable form of just over two hours' experience. Centering, of course, on the eldest Dashwood sisters, the story concerns Elinor and Marianne as they, their mother, and their younger sister are ousted from their home, penniless after the death of their patriarch. Their brother has "rightly" inherited the estate, and he and his pitiless wife waste no time in claiming what's newly theirs. Their only hope, upon moving to Barton Cottage in Devonshire, is to marry well despite their low status. We follow their encounters with various suitors; Elinor, more reserved and thoughtful, attempts to overcome social boundaries and expectations with her sister-in-law's respectable elder brother Edward, while passionate and melodramatic Marianne burns brightly with charismatic but dubious Willoughby while the awkward but earnest Colonel Brandon waits patiently for her.

Thankfully, the romantic plots are less the focus of this film than they were of the 1995 film. Rather, Oakley and her team work hard to make this film feel palpably realistic, grounded and dirty to the point of highlighting dresses stained with berry juice and hair getting tangled in the breeze. More like Hamnet in that regard, we're treated frequently to wordless moments of the sisters cuddling in bed together, wandering the woods, and practicing housework in their smaller new digs. The actors are all fine (including Daisy Edgar-Jones and George MacKay), but the interest here is really the visuals; Fiona Shaw is the notable standout as the generous busybody Mrs. Jennings, who mobilizes the sisters' social efforts in several hilarious scenes that smartly let her chew all she wants. 

It's a diverting enough viewing experience, especially if you like such things. I just found myself wondering repeatedly -- both during the screening and now -- why this piece exists at all, and I still can come up with no answer.