Sense & Sensibility / Miss Austen Regrets
by John Alexander
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DVD details
Actor: Charity Wakefield, Dan Stevens, Hattie Morahan, Janet McTeer, Mark WilliamsDirector: John Alexander
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 174 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- From acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (BBC?s Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth) comes this enchanting new adaptation of Jane Austen'sic novel about love and marriage. Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve when she falls in love with the charming but unsuitable John Willoughby, ignoring her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. El
DVD Reviews of Sense & Sensibility / Miss Austen Regrets
DVD Review: A more realistic version of life at the time
Summary: 4 Stars
I've recently been on a Jane Austin kick, and in browsing for titles found that for most of the favorite novels--at least my favorites--there are two, three and sometimes even more cinematic versions to be found. Like Little Women, Little Women (Unabridged Classics), almost every generation seems to need to see its own favorite actresses in the roles. There are at least four versions of the latter, Little Women (1933) (Katherine Hepburn), Little Women (June Allyson), Little Women (Meredith Baxter Berny), and Little Women (Collector's Series) (Susan Sarrandon). Having watched the Emma Thompson edition of Sense & Sensibility (Special Edition), I decided to view this one as well.
The filmography is quite good, as one has come to expect it to be with this type of production. The English scenery is haunting and exquisite, the manor homes made intimate despite their size by candle light evenings of extended family gathered around the spinet. Even large parties seem "private" under this illumination. The costumes are somewhat less brilliant than some of those I've seen in other films of the Victorian Era, but still quite good. They definitely reflect the differences between the generations well.
The actors, while not quite as front line as those in the Emma Thompson version, are quite skilled in their rendering of each character, and while I feel that those of the latter are more charismatic in their interpretation--Huge Grant, for instance, is the quintescentual Edward--those of the former are probably more realistic with respect to the period and to the author's original intent. The Dominic Cooper Willoughby is portrayed as far less a "star crossed" lover who is to be pittied, as he is in the Thompson film, nor is there any sense that he suffers any real anguish of loss. Here he is a selfish, self-seeking opportunist willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to enjoy the lifestyle to which he has always been accustomed--though with the alternative, who can really blame him? While we understand the Willoughby in this film, we don't necessarily like, forgive or sympathize with him. I think this was the author's intent. She wanted us to see the predicament of wealth without joy or happiness other than through dissipation, and the disaster of life without any secure income. Certainly this put into high relief the circumstances of Edward, whose character though honest and morally upright faced prospects of utter ruin and a life with which he was ill prepared to deal. One is left wondering if he is stupid or crazy; in short we are wondering about the sanity of Edward but equally critical of the selfish behavior of Willoughby. There is no doubt in the reader/viewer's mind that these individuals are held hostage by society just as much as the women are.
This rendition of the novel seems to have less levity to it. Everything is far more serious, than the Thompson film is. Charity Wakefield's Marianne's risky behavior, though less flamoyant than the Kate Winslet Marianne, is seen much more clearly here as the threat to her reputation and marital future that it is. Her indiscretions are small and innocent compared to those of the Winslet version, but they reveal to the modern audience just how little it took to actually bring ones behavior into question. The Winslet Marianne would have been way off the chart for a contemporary audience. While a modern audience will see a willful girl of 15 or 16 in love, acting out as adolescents so frequently do, the contemporary audience would have seen an imprudent and reckless young woman throwing away her future and that of her sisters in a world where society could be brutal in its ostracism of any woman whose potential off-spring might inherit considerable sums of land, property, and capital. These rules were well known and well understood both by the author and by her contemporary readers. While a married woman who'd provided her legal spouse with an "heir and a spare" might dally with other men and often did, until she had married and done her legal duty, she was under the social microscope. Reputation was thus everything to an unmarried woman. Maryanne's behavior would have put her own future on the line along with that of both her sisters Eleanor and Margaret.
Since there were few men with large fortunes of which to dispose, the competition for them was intense, with the wealthy and aristocratic young women seen as front runners for the prizes available to each generation. The Dashwood girls' sister-in-law Fannie Dashwood was a personification of just such an heiress. She is played skillfully and with restraint here by Claire Skinner in keeping with the emotive ambiance of the version, but with much greater flamboyance and comedic skill by Harriet Walter in the Thompson version. Successful in her own generation, she had fished for and caught the girls' brother, heir to the Dashwood fortune, and expected to reap the benefits of having done her "duty," here represented by the little red headed boy in the film. By eliminating her husband's "burden" of unmarried sisters by driving them out of the house they had been born in and by assuaging his conscience over his failure to do as his dying father had requested--sort of "out of sight out of mind"--she ensured that her own son would inheret an intact estate.
All of this marital maneuvering led to the famous "season" in London with its parties presenting for inspection the young women just "coming out" each year like so many fine horses for sale to the highest bidder. Fannie is at the ball where Maryanne humiliates herself over Willoughby to make certain her beloved brothers Edward and Robert meet appropriate potential marriage partners. She has already made it plain to her mother-in-law and to the audience that Edward's inheritance is predicated on his marriage to a woman acceptable to his mother, played with great effect by Jean Marsh of Upstairs, Downstairs - Collector's Edition Megaset (The Complete Series plus Thomas and Sarah) fame. This makes it obvious that the duty to keep the family fortunes out of the hands of "unsuitable" connections was the responsiblity of everyone in the family, especially the women. That she is right in her suspicion of their vulnerability is obvious to the reader/viewer because they already know that Edward has secretly betrothed himself to Lucy Steele, played demurely by Anna Madeley in this version and with greater comedic Machiavellianism by Imogine Stubbs in the Thompson film, while a student at the girl's father's school.
Less affluent women of various degrees, like the Dashwood and Steele sisters and like the betrayed ward of Colonel Brandon, relied upon beauty, talent, virtue, family connection, or pure guile to enter the marriage race and with varying degrees of success. Both versions of the film reveal that it was the responsibility of extended family, especially the women, to find suitable husbands for these unmarried women. Hence the enthusiastic response of the Mrs. Jennings of both versions of the film. Some of these young women were destined to marry the younger sons of wealthy families who were themselves destined for careers in the military or the church and who might inherit small legacies from their family but would essentially earn an income from their professions, keeping them at least in the lower ranks of the upper class. A churchman might actually inherit a benefice offered by the estate of the family of which he was a part and do very little by means of actual labor. Edward's ultimate destiny reflects this aspect of society when he receives a benefice from the estate of Colonel Brandon. The importance of these profurements and the competition for them, especially in the church, can clearly be seen in Trollope's Barchester Chronicals (excellantly filmed in The Barchester Chronicles with Donald Pleasence). Those with fewer prospects were reduced to making secret liasons, like Lucy Steele, or granting sexual favors like Colonel Brandon's ward. That this sometimes met with success is personified by the wiley Lucy and sometimes with disaster by the betrayed ward of the Colonel.
In such circumstances innuendo and gossip could be wielded like a battle axe by contenders in the marriage market to damage or even destroy the chances of an opponent, and once damaged the lady was all but unmarketable and fell back on her family as a dependant and burden forever. Nor was the character of just one daughter with a damaged reputation the only victim, since her fate put that of all of her unmarried sisters into question as well, effectively removing them for the sweepstakes. This is made even clearer by the Austin novel Pride and Prejudice, Pride And Prejudice and Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996), when younger sister Lydia runs off with (another) unconscienced Willoghby and the Bennet family feels it encumbant upon themselves to withdraw from society altogether, until Mr. Darcy comes to their rescue. Families were well aware of the consequences of such damage and took precautions against it, while those of young eligible bachelors took even greater care to keep their heirs out of the hands of "unsuitable" women.
All of this "survival of the fittest" activity was bread and butter to Jane Austin, who was herself part of the lower ranks of upper class society. She presents for gentle ridicule a system that leaves women no options for their continued well being except a "good" marriage or the kindness of well-disposed brothers, fathers and other male relatives--the latter group having been her own solace until her death at 41.
All of these rules are made plain to the audience through the stereotypical characters in the novel and are well portrayed in this film version of it.
Description of Sense & Sensibility / Miss Austen Regrets
From acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (BBC?s Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth) comes this enchanting new adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel about love and marriage. Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve when she falls in love with the charming but unsuitable John Willoughby, ignoring her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Elinor, sensitive to social convention, struggles to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Will the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love?DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Interviews
Outtakes
Photo gallery
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