"Sense and Sensibility" A film review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL December 16, 1995 In one of the more unlikely scenarios you can imagine, the hottest "property" in the movie business this year--apart, perhaps, from John Travolta--seems to be Jane Austen. Yes, THAT Jane Austen, the early 19th Century English novelist Jane Austen. Her novels have provided the storylines for three big movies this year, each one better than the next. You may not have realized you were seeing an adaptation of Austen's novel EMMA when you indulged in the small guilty pleasure of watching rich teens at play in last summer's CLUELESS, but you were. Then, a month or so ago, Jane Austen showed up again, under her own colors with a full-fledged film version of her novel PERSUASION that has garnered rave reviews, but fairly limited audiences because it's seen as a "classic" and has no big name stars to bring in the audiences. That may change, however, as a side effect of this week's opening of the third Austen story of the year, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, that has all of the virtues of PERSUASION plus Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant in leading roles as well. And it is such a hugely enjoyable film that it may lead moviegoers to take a look at PERSUASION as well, on the grounds that Austen stories of early19th C. British manners can make great late 20th C. flicks. Two interesting additional facts about SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: the person who adapted the novel and wrote the screenplay is none other than Emma Thompson herself, and the director chosen to put it on the screen is not British but Chinese, Ang Lee, of THE WEDDING BANQUET and EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, fame. And once again, working with the finest ingredients, he has stirred up a delightful feast for your holiday viewing. What I liked about this film is the way it both calls attention to the terrible predicament that women were in in England at the time and what a monstrous injustice was being done to them and at the same time shows, as Austen herself did, how intelligent and spirited and full of life they could be in spite of the liabilities under which they labored. The inheritance laws at the time were such that only sons could inherit the property of their fathers. When the wealthy Mr. Dashwood, who had had a son by his first wife and three daughters by his current wife, dies, he has no choice but to leave all his property to his son, with a request that he take care of his step-mother and half-sisters. This he promises to do, but his ungenerous, social-climbing wife soon talks him out of it, and so the Dashwood women are given only a pittance and forced to move out of their home and to scrimp and save to survive in a "cottage" on the estate of a distant cousin deep in the rural countryside. There is virtually nothing that they as gentlewomen can do in the way of work to supplement their meager income. At one point Elinor Dashwood (Emma Thompson) gives voice to her frustration when her suitor, Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), complains about his situtation of not being able to pursue the career he wants, and she asks him to think about what her perpetually enforced idleness means to her. Not that they are actually idle. Under these circumstances the search for a husband takes on monumental importance, and this is, at its heart,a gently satiric comedy about these romantic rituals. The biggest send-up is reserved for the great romantic conventions such as the mysterious hero thundering down the moor to rescue the damsel in distress, conjuring up images of Heathcliffe and WUTHERING HEIGHTS. In this instance the Romantic hero type, Mr. Willoughby (Greg Wise) turns out to be a bounder who breaks the heart of the emotional Marianne Dashwood (played deliciously by Kate Winslet). The supporting players in this film are all perfectly cast and turn in fine comic performances whether they are villains, buffoons, or virtuous to a fault like Alan Rickman's Col. Brandon. The film is visually stunning, Ang Lee's staging and camera work are several cuts above that in his earlier films, which is to say they're very good indeed. Don't miss this one. It's a sugar-plum for the holidays. For the Women's Show, this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1995. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or reproduce this review without the permission of the author: .