ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190036
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
Who'd have thought that an adaptation of a Jane Austen novel would be a huge popular hit?
Given the topnotch cast and crew that made the film, it's no surprise that "Sense and Sensibility" has the inside track on several Oscar nominations. It's the kind of film that the Academy honors year after year. But its success at the box office, based on good reviews and word of mouth, is something else entirely - proof, perhaps, that good storytelling never goes out of fashion.
And the rocky road to romance for the Dashwood sisters is certainly a good story.
In the England of the late 1700s, Miss Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Miss Marianne (Kate Winslet) are left with little when their father dies. The estate goes to his son from his first marriage. The young women, their mother (Gemma Jones) and their irrepressible little sister Margaret (Emilie Francois) must depend on the strained generosity of John (James Fleet) and his conniving, tight-fisted wife Fanny (Harriet Walter).
But when Elinor meets Fanny's brother Edward (Hugh Grant), they experience an instant mutual attraction. Fanny's having none of that, and besides, other matters must be taken care of first. Elinor is the cool-headed, logical member of the family, the one who worries about a place to live and other details.
While she's sorting those matters out, Marianne falls hopelessly in love with their new neighbor Willoughby (Greg Wise), even though Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) is a much more suitable match.
That brief synopsis only hints at the levels of complexity and meaning in Emma Thompson's script. This is a film of manners, of an individual's place in society and what society does when an individual breaks commitments. If the material isn't exactly action-packed, it's still fascinating. What secrets are these characters hiding? How will they work their way through the complex mazes of propriety they've built for themselves?
At first, Taiwanese-born Ang Lee might seem an odd choice to direct such a story, but anyone who's seen his earlier work - "The Wedding Banquet" and "Eat Drink Man Woman" - knows that his real subject is family relations. The rules may be different in 18th century England and contemporary America and Taiwan, where his films have been set, but the emotions are the same.
The period details don't call attention to themselves, as they do in so many costume dramas, and that gives the film a relaxed, more realistic quality. The actors seem to have approached their work with the same comfortable attitude.
Yes, Hugh Grant does overdo the fluttering eyelids, but everyone else is near perfect. Rickman, normally seen as a villain (``Die Hard"), is just as effective as a romantic character. It's hard to believe that Kate Winslet is the same young woman who was so good in last year's "Heavenly Creatures" because she looks radically different. More important, she's able to make Marianne's full-blown romanticism seem charming and believable.
Though Marianne is almost always the center of attention, she doesn't often steal the spotlight from Emma Thompson, who wrote a fine part for herself and makes the most of it. They're supported by a large troupe of superb character actors whose faces will be familiar to anyone who's watched British films or television. That combination of cast and material creates the kind of screen "chemistry" that audiences love to see, and it explains why "Sense" is doing so well.
Sense and Sensibility *** 1/2
A Columbia Pictures release at the Tanglewood Mall 135 min. Rated PG for subject matter.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Kate Winslet, Gemma Jones, Emilie Francois and Emmaby CNBThompson star in "Sense and Sensibility." color.