Sense and Sensibility

Oscars, Emma and Jane Austen - together at last...

More? ... um... beautiful countryside, lavish costumes, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant on horseback...

If you're still in a state of non-persuasion, the film follows the lives of three sisters - the up-tight Elinor (Thompson - just beggning for an Oscar) and the dizzy bint Marianne (Winslet), and Margaret who spends most of her time hidden under tables - as, with the death of their father, they find their circumstances considerably poorer. With the arrival of a dashing and eligible bachelor, love and marriage provide the central issue to the plot - and send both of the older sisters into a veritable frenzy.

The strength of Austen's writing shines through, as not everything is as Hollywood conventionally demands. Comparisons with the BBC's recent Pride and Prejudice adaptation are inevitably drawn, but Sense and Sensibility clearly wins hands-down. Thompson, Winslet and Grant (playing a dippy, hesitant, blithering nob - big stretch there) are as admirable as ever, but it is Rickman - albeit in a secondary role - who is devastatingly brilliant. You can only sympathise with Kevin Costner when he made cuts to prevent Rickman upstaging him. Nice try, Kev.

Hankies and stiff upper lips at the ready - and that's just the film itself!

Sam H. Hillyar