Austen’s romance, reframed through sisterhood
The new screen version of Sense and Sensibility finds its clearest point of difference in the relationship at the story’s center: Elinor and Marianne Dashwood’s love for each other. Screenwriter Diana Reid sees that bond as the engine of the sisters’ choices and growth, giving the adaptation a perspective that can stand apart from familiar Austen screen versions.
That’s a deliberate choice in a field where Emma Thompson’s 1995 film, starring Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, is often treated as the benchmark. Reid, a novelist who has tried to learn from Austen’s wit and insight into character, says rereading the book helped her see how much of its action is driven by the sisters’ relationship, even as romance remains central.
The film follows Elinor, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Marianne, played by Esmé Creed-Miles, as they respond to love in markedly different ways. Reid spoke with PW about bringing that contrast—and the sisters’ influence on one another—to the screen.
What the sisters teach each other
Reid says sisterhood resonates beyond relationships between biological sisters. “I don’t have a sister so maybe that’s something I crave,” she says, but women often experience sisterhood through other close relationships. In a coming-of-age story, she argues, identity takes shape partly through other women: what someone learns from them, and how they challenge each other.
That dynamic is one reason Austen’s work continues to speak to Reid. The sisters aren’t simply navigating courtship in parallel; their exchanges help define who they become. For the new film, that makes their connection a central thread through the emotional story, rather than a backdrop to the romances.
Keeping Austen’s humor and ambiguity
Two lines from the novel were especially important to Reid. One is Elinor’s blunt declaration after a difficult night: “I will drink the wine myself.” Reid likes its unexpected, almost contemporary feel. The production considered cutting the moment because it might read like a comic beat from Bridget Jones, she says, but the line is Austen’s own. Reid sees the joke as part of the author’s enduring ease with human appetites and small comforts.
The other passage is quieter. Reid shifted the moment when Elinor says, “Although it is bewitching, the idea that one’s happiness depends on another person, it is not meant—it is not fit—it is not always possible.” The statement begins to sound like a reason to reject the ideal of love, then falters before Elinor can fully make that case.
Reid reads the pause as revealing: Elinor can accept that love may not happen for her, but can’t quite give up on the hope. She says Daisy Edgar-Jones’s performance reflects that hesitation. A few words carry Elinor from a moral-sounding judgment about love to a more personal recognition of uncertainty.
Changing the book for the screen
Reid doesn’t approach adaptation as an exercise in preserving every detail. The screen has different tools and constraints, she says, so keeping a story’s themes alive can require new choices. In the novel, a duel between two characters is mentioned in passing rather than staged as a major event. The film makes it part of the action, using the visual scene to show which man a woman supports as her affections shift.
Some changes also reflect the distance between Austen’s social world and contemporary expectations. Reid points to Colonel Brandon’s age and family history in the book: he is 36, while Marianne is 16, and he has a daughter her age. The pairing wasn’t presented as shocking when Austen wrote it, but Reid says a modern audience could read it as paternalistic and unsettling. The adaptation changes Brandon’s backstory instead of asking viewers to set aside that reaction.
The film’s closing image brings its emphasis on the sisters into focus. Reid’s favorite moment is the final frame, with Elinor and Marianne embracing. Their expressions suggest that each understands what she has learned from the other. For Reid, that hug gathers the film’s emotional journey into one image: the sisters’ choices may differ, but their bond is what carries the story through.
