New Sense and Sensibility film focuses on sisterhood and financial insecurity

A new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility centres on the sisterly bond between the Dashwood women and their financial insecurity.

Director Georgia Oakley's version, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and Esmé Creed-Miles as her sister Marianne, opens in theatres Oct. 16.

"They really wanted to centralize the love story as being the two girls," Edgar-Jones said of Oakley and screenwriter Diana Reid's approach.

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The story follows the sisters after their father's death, when the family estate passes to their half-brother, leaving them with limited financial security and forcing a move to a more modest home.

In Austen's time, women's prospects depended heavily on the goodwill of male relatives or the security of marriage, making this sudden loss of status especially precarious.

The film's visual world moves with them from controlled drawing rooms into the open countryside, amid weather, mud and unkempt fields.

Edgar-Jones told CBC News that working with her longtime friend Creed-Miles felt effortless.

"I had an idea of who I thought Elinor was, but it wasn't until I really started acting those scenes with Esmé's Marianne that I really understood her," she said.

Creed-Miles said their friendship quickly helped them find a "familial, sisterly, best friend sort of energy." She said she "couldn't have gotten through the project" without Edgar-Jones's support.

Canadian author Natalie Jenner, whose novel The Jane Austen Society draws on Austen's work, sees that connection as one reason the book continues to resonate.

"If your family relationships are strong, you feel emboldened to take on anything," Jenner told CBC News. "The sisters are the constant. And that sense of constancy and a North Star is something that you can always go back to."

The new film's male characters offer a departure from the archetypes established in Ang Lee's 1995 adaptation.

Herbert Nordrum, who plays Colonel Brandon, explained he portrayed the character as awkward and difficult to read, focusing on his internal struggle to express feelings.

Frank Dillane, who plays John Willoughby, told CBC News he wanted to emphasize the character's "joy, his exuberance, his lust for life, poetry and romance" while letting his questionable actions speak for themselves.

He joked that Willoughby's grand romantic gestures would now be called "love bombing," while his habit of ignoring Marianne's letters is the period-drama equivalent of "ghosting."

While Lee's 1995 film is lush and sweeping, Oakley's is quieter and more grounded.

RNZ's review called it a "beautiful film that is a pleasure to sit through," noting its focus on sisterhood, freer tone and more modern morals.

"This is a film where two pinkies nearly touching for half a second on a table becomes scintillating," the review said.

It praised the lead actresses, with Creed-Miles especially making an arguably annoying character endearing.

"She finds a way to deliver lines like 'I require so much!' with simultaneous hilarity and insight," the review said.

The rest of the cast is "exceptionally well chosen," including George MacKay as Edward and Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings.

The cinematography by Arnaud Potier, partly shot on 35mm film, was described as rich and interesting, with an atmosphere evocative of Romanticism.

Jenner said she believes younger audiences are craving more naturalistic depictions, a shift she noticed through conversations with her daughter.

She said coming out of the pandemic, there's been a longing for a return to nature and simple warmth, which has seeped into the visual style of modern adaptations.

Jenner believes Austen's stories offer romance, but also friendship, family, community and the difficult work of figuring out what kind of life will make you happy.

The film does not try to replace older versions but asks what these stories can mean to audiences now.

With files from CBC News and RNZ