Product Description

Emma Thompson Alan Rickman Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant star in this captivating romantic comedy that swept the Ten Best lists and won the Golden Globe Award as Best Picture of the Year (Drama).Based on Jane Austen's classic novel Sense And Sensibility tells of the Dashwood sisters sensible Elinor (Thompson) and passionate Marianne (Winslet) whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. Rickman Grant and Greg Wise co-star as the well-intentioned suitors who are trapped by the strict rules of society and the conflicting laws of desire.Bonus Features: Interactive Menus 2 Audio Commentaries: - Emma Thompson Producer Lindsay Dorin - Director Ang Lee Co-producer James Schamus Deleted scenes Emma Thompson's Golden Globe acceptance speech Original Theatrical Trailer Bonus Trailers Production Notes Scene SelectionsSystem Requirements:Starring: Emma Thompson Kate Winslet Hugh Grant Gemma Jones and Alan Rickman. Directed By: Ang Lee. Running Time: 136 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 Columbia TriStar.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 043396115996 Manufacturer No: 11599

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1999-08-24
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
• Dubbed in: Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 136 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Emma Thompson scores a double bull's-eye with this marvelous adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Not only does Thompson turn in a strong (and gently humorous) performance as one of the Dashwood sisters--the one with "sense"--she also wrote the witty, wise screenplay. Austen's tale of 19th-century manners and morals provides a large cast with a feast of possibilities, notably Kate Winslet, in her pre-Titanic flowering, as Thompson's deeply romantic sister. Winslet attracts the wooing of shy Alan Rickman (a nice change of pace from his bad-guy roles) and dashing Greg Wise, while Thompson must endure an incredibly roundabout courtship with Hugh Grant, here in fine and funny form. All of this is doled out with the usual eye-filling English countryside and handsome costumes, yet the film always seems to be about the careful interior lives of its characters. The director, an inspired choice, is Taiwan-born Ang Lee, who brings the same exquisite taste and discreet touch he displayed in his previous Asian films (such as Eat Drink Man Woman). Thompson's script won an Oscar, and 1995 was a fine year for Jane Austen all around: Persuasion was made into an excellent picture, and Emma became the spritzy high school comedy Clueless. --Robert Horton

From The New Yorker
The director, Ang Lee, and the screenwriter, Emma Thompson, turn Jane Austen's first published novel into a gracious and unfailingly pleasant entertainment. Thompson also plays the very sensible heroine, Elinor Dashwood, and gives a restrained, appealing performance: she carries the movie without overwhelming her fellow-actors. (Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet are especially good; the only clinker is a grotesquely mannered performance by Hugh Grant as Elinor's suitor.) The picture is determinedly minor, but, slowly and surely, it persuades us to settle for the small delights of engaging storytelling, warm humor, pretty scenery, and pretty people. If it pressed its temperate charms on us any harder, they would be much easier to resist. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Quick delivery
The dvd was sent within a week and it's in really good condition. Would order from them again.

Excellent, except for the absence of Edward Ferrars
This is an excellent version of "Sense and Sensibility", and I'll say right up front that the DVD extra of Emma Thompson's Golden Globe acceptance speech is a much watch. It's hilarious.

Onto the movie itself.

Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson do a fantastic job of selling Elinor and Marianne. It's a bit hard visually since Thompson looks so much older than Winslet, but they do the sisterly rather than the mother-daughter thing, so it works. Winslet's hurt look when Willoughby won't shake her hand was the defining scene for me; with Elinor, it was the scene where she quietly drinks tea while the rest of the house is in an uproar over Willoughby's defection.

What else I liked. Greg Wise and Alan Rickman as Willoughby and Brandon, respectively, are good as well. Imelda Staunton as the cheery Charlotte Palmer and Hugh Laurie as her sarcastic husband are fun. Laurie's few scenes are excellent - he comes across as sarcastic and displeased, but his genuine offer of help to Elinor when Marianne is sick is well done. (But hey, it's Hugh Laurie.)

I liked how they use Margaret Dashwood to enhance Edward and Brandon; I enjoyed the non-Austen map scene as well as Brandon's teasing Margaret over her curious questions about the Indies.

Imogen Stubbs as Miss Lucy Steele was fantastic. I'd seen this movie very early, before I read the book, and for awhile in the movie I couldn't figure out if she was supposed to be a good guy or a bad one. Stubbs' sweet, earnest expression plays so well into Lucy's underhandness.

The other side characters were all right but not memorable.

What sucked: Edward Ferrars. He didn't even show up and sent Hugh Grant in his place. This was the worst Edward Ferrars I've ever seen; instead of Austen's Ferrars, this guy is basically a Regency version of every other character Hugh Grant's ever played. He's kind of an inarticulate, kind of stammering, nervous, shy, bumbling but genuinely nice guy. This is not Austen's Edward Ferrars. I'll admit I missed it the first time I saw it - I had not yet read the novel - but upon second viewing it was pretty clear the disparity between Austen's and Thompson's versions. It's a puzzlement as to why he's written this way; of course Thompson knows Austen better than this, and Grant has got more range than that usual bumbling thing.

A definite watch, though with a caveat emptor.

Sense and Sensibility
This is a typical Jane Austen romance, beautifully written and masterfully performed. The witty dialogue is well casted and acted by charming and professional perfomers. Highly recommended, especially for Jane Austen fans.