sense and sensibility

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SENSE AND SENSIBILITY— a review

Jane Austen was born in 1775 and she grew up in the countryside. She lived quite a dull life, spending most of the time with her family, and with occasional trips to Bath. It is in these environments that her six novels take place. ”Sense and sensibility” was her first novel, and she wrote it, 36 years old, in 1811. After a life as a novelist, she died at the age of 42. All her books are recognised by strong women as main characters.
My expectations before watching this film were pretty low. My previous experiences of Jane’s stories are from the TV-series “Pride and prejudice”, the movie “Emma” and the book “Persuasion”. As a child I really tried to like the films, but it never got up to my expectations. When I got the book for my latest birthday, I said to myself, that one always have to try to like a gift, and so, I read it. It took me all summer, since it was dead boring, and I only could manage to read one chapter a week. When my class had voted this film to be watched in the lessons, I immediately decided it was boring. I know that it was not a very clever thing to do, and I have got my punishment with this review, since it is very hard to write about a film that you haven’t even tried to understand. Another thing that made me dislike the movie was Hugh Grant, from my point of view, one of the worst actors in the universe. His silly facial expressions can ruin a perfectly good story, and that has now been proved once again! I wonder if there’s too few actors who can speak with an English accent, and if that is why he gets so many parts.
The storyline is as usual quite thin, with much romance and, of course, a happy ending. The plot begins as old Mr Dashwood dies. As women can’t inherit anything, the oldest son takes over the house and the Dashwood women are thrown out. The oldest sister, Elinor, sees it as her duty to take care of the family, which are her mother, her youngest sister and the middle-sister Marianne. Marianne is a very romantic girl, who likes to read poetry, and stroll around in the meadows. One day she twists her ankle but is given help by Mr Willoughby. From this day on she is madly in love with him. Elinor, on the other hand, is more down-to-earth but she is secretly having a crush on Edward. Now 90 minutes of problems begins. How will they ever survive? And will the film have a happy ending? The answer is, as always, yes. Everyone gets happily paired together and can live happily ever after.
I do have to admit that there are some things I like about “Sense and sensibility”. I love to listen to the wonderful accent, which is used in the perfectly written dialogues, and I also like the fancy costumes. All the properties and the breathtaking English landscape are also part of making this a beautiful movie. But that’s about it. I’m sure that it is a very realistic story, if you so happen to be a gorgeous-looking upper-middle class female in your twenties or so. It is also a plus if you are ready to stand up against your parents for the sake of love, even though you know that it might be the end of living in the house of your father. From what I have seen and read in other stories from the same age and country, it wasn’t quite as easy as Jane makes it seem. Even though this was the time for female liberation, the men still had most of the power, and most of them were not to fond of these ideas.
As I see it the ...