Boy-crazy on the surface, this Jane Austen adaptation proves to be interested in sisterhood at heart. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esme Creed-Miles play Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, respectively, siblings who—along with their younger sister (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and mother (Caitriona Balfe)—must fend for themselves after being booted from their family mansion in the wake of their father and husband’s death. For the older siblings, marriage offers the likeliest security, so it’s fortuitous that Elinor meets a dashing step-brother-in-law (George MacKay) and Marianne encounters a playful new neighbor (Frank Dillane). Or is it? This is Austen, so we have many thorny emotional paths and surprising character reveals to navigate before all is said and done. As adapted by Diana Reid and directed by Georgia Oakley, Sense and Sensibility has an earthy sensuality (frosted breath on windowpanes, bare feet in streams) and a lightly modern manner. Much of that comes from Creed-Miles as Elinor, who’s as likely to pop up from a field like a startled deer as she is to sharply question class etiquette at a ball. And while the early wooing scenes are sigh-inducing (Edgar-Jones and MacKay have a delightfully reticent chemistry), it’s the moments of tension and celebration between Elinor and Marianne that ring truest. This is a movie in which the sisters break up—and it’s their reunion you root for most.
(10/14/2026)
