Sense and Sensibility

Director: Ang Lee
Year Released: 1995
Rating: 3.0

Witty, wonderfully performed Austen adaptation makes me wonder why Emma Thompson doesn't write more (and no, Nanny McPhee doesn't count). Two sisters (Thompson and Kate Winslet) go in search of love and marriage but are consistently thwarted - Thompson likes Hugh Grant but he's a male flake and Winslet likes Greg Wise but Wise has a 'history.' Elsewhere, poor Alan Rickman's colonel character is friend-zoned and can't get no satisfaction. There are humorous side characters and Thompson's performance is exceptional - Grant, too, excels at playing awkward. Still, in a modern sense, their woes seem a little paltry: none of them has to work and their biggest threat to survival is getting rained on. It must have been nice.