COMPARISON is the thief of joy, especially with films.
This Gen Z-friendly take on Jane Austen’s classic novel certainly had me craving a re-watch of director Ang Lee’s 1995 Oscar-winning adaptation that starred Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.
Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood Credit: PA
Elinor suffocates her affections for shy Edward Ferrars (George MacKay) Credit: PA
In this latest version, the first of the three Dashwood girls we meet is middle sister Marianne (Esme Creed-Miles), who is by far the wildest.
Sometimes she is practically feral, with hair so unbrushed it almost whips itself into dreadlocks.
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She is an alternative, emo Marianne who deeply believes in passionate love and roams the forests alone, wearing soaking, muddy petticoats.
The girls have lost their father, so the family, which includes older sister Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones), younger sister Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and their widowed mother (Caitriona Balfe), are forced to leave their rolling estate for a modest cottage in deepest, darkest Devon.
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Esme Creed-Miles as Marianne Dashwood and Edgar-Jones’ Elinor Credit: PA
If you are an Austen purist hoping for something that’s similar to the sisters Thompson and Winslet brought us, this one does not compare Credit: PA
There, the two older girls experience different levels of love and heartbreak.
Elinor suffocates her affections for shy Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), with the maturity of someone who has already experienced life’s complexities.
Meanwhile, Marianne weeps and screams like a woman possessed over her dastardly cad, Mr Willoughby (Frank Dillane).
The supporting cast includes Fiona Shaw overplaying the noisy-but-nice Mrs Jennings, Norwegian actor Herbert Nordrum unable to hide his accent as the quiet Colonel Brandon, and Sting’s non-binary offspring, Eliot Sumner, as Mr Turner.
The best scenes are between the excellent Edgar-Jones and MacKay, whose love story keeps you holding your breath.
And the cinematography over the wild countryside is stunning.
Still, if you are an Austen purist hoping for something that’s similar to the sisters Thompson and Winslet brought us, this one does not compare.
