‘Sense and Sensibility’ Review: Georgia Oakley Puts a Moody, Naturalistic Spin on the Jane Austen Classic

It’s been over 30 years since Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility” became (for this critic, as for many) the Platonic ideal of the Jane Austen adaptation. Lush but controlled, dryly funny (thanks to Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning script) in that chatty, cheeky, keenly perceptive Austen way, Lee’s classic also boasted a formidable cast to unleash a […] Georgia Oakley's 'Sense and Sensibility' brings Daisy Edgar-Jones, George MacKay, Esmé Creed-Miles, and a scene-stealing Frank Dillane together. The British director’s follow-up to her BAFTA-winning “Blue Jean” brings Daisy Edgar-Jones, George MacKay, Esmé Creed-Miles, and a scene-stealing Frank Dillane together in a romantically earthy 18th-century England.

It’s been over 30 years since Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility” became (for this critic, as for many) the Platonic ideal of the Jane Austen adaptation. Lush but controlled, dryly funny (thanks to Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning script) in that chatty, cheeky, keenly perceptive Austen way, Lee’s classic also boasted a formidable cast to unleash a floodgate of big, ugly-cry-inducing emotions by its finale. All of which is to say that Georgia Oakley had a tough act to follow in taking on the beloved tale of two sisters navigating matters of the heart in two vastly different ways. Though slightly muted