A new adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," directed by Georgia Oakley from a screenplay by Diana Reid, opened in wide domestic release this weekend through Focus Features after premiering in the U.K. and parts of Europe in September. Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as the pragmatic elder sister Elinor Dashwood opposite Esmé Creed-Miles as the romantic Marianne, with Caitriona Balfe as their mother and George MacKay as Edward Ferrars.
The film has drawn a 75% Tomatometer score from 92 reviews, with a notably higher 89% audience score from early verified ratings. Critics have largely agreed on the strength of the two lead performances while disagreeing sharply on the film's tone, which several reviewers described as darker and more melancholy than the beloved 1995 Ang Lee version starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.
Reaction, compiled by Deseret News, split roughly down the middle. The New York Post was blunt, writing that the film plays as "doom and gloom" next to the 1995 original, and The Hollywood Reporter faulted it for making "the story so overwhelmingly morose and its protagonists such a joyless pair." The Times called it "dramatically uneven and bafflingly conventional."
Others pushed back on that reading. IndieWire praised the film as "an oak-solid, faithful envisioning made with sensitivity and a classical temperament," and Variety called it a "solid undertaking" built on "beautifully textured worldbuilding." The Wrap was most effusive.
"Enchanting and beautiful, just as it should be."
The Wrap
The film, from producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's Working Title Films, opened against two other new wide releases, the video-game adaptation "Street Fighter" and the survival thriller "Whalefall," giving period-drama audiences a comparatively quiet corner of an otherwise loud October weekend. Internationally, the film has already taken in roughly $10 million since opening in the U.K. and parts of Europe in late September, with the U.K. market accounting for the bulk of that total.
With reviews settling into a clear divide between admirers of its restraint and critics who find it joyless, the film's next test will be whether word of mouth among Austen loyalists can sustain it domestically through the next several weeks, a period when awards-season attention typically begins to take shape for literary adaptations.