Sense and Sensibility (film)

Sense and Sensibility is a 1995 American period drama film directed by Ang Lee and based on Jane Austens 1811 novel of the same name. Actress Emma Thompson wrote the script and stars as Elinor Dashwood, while Kate Winslet plays Elinors younger sister Marianne. The story follows the Dashwood sisters, members of a wealthy English family of landed gentry, as they must deal with circumstances of sudden destitution. They are forced to seek financial security through marriage. Actors Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman play their respective suitors. The film was released onDecember 1995 in the United States and onFebruary 1996 in the United Kingdom.

On his deathbed, Mr. Dashwood Tom Wilkinson tells his son from his first marriage, John James Fleet, to take care of his second wife Gemma Jones and three daughters, Elinor Emma Thompson, Marianne Kate Winslet and Margaret Emilie Franois, since they will inherit nothing. Johns greedy and snobbish wife Fanny Harriet Walter convinces him to give his half sisters practically nothing financially John and Fanny immediately install themselves in the large house, forcing the Dashwood ladies to look for a new home. Fanny invites her brother Edward Ferrars Hugh Grant to stay with them. Elinor and Edward soon form a close friendship, but Fanny haughtily tells Mrs. Dashwood that Edward would be disinherited if he married someone of no importance with no money. Mrs. Dashwood understands her meaning completely.Sir John Middleton Robert Hardy, a cousin of the widowed Mrs. Dashwood, offers her a small cottage house on his estate, Barton Park in Devonshire. She and her daughters move in, and are frequent guests at Barton Park. The Dashwoods meet the older Colonel Brandon Alan Rickman, who falls in love with Marianne at first sight. However, Marianne considers him an old bachelor, incapable of feeling love or inspiring it in another. ........

Source: Wikipedia