Completely wonderful. Amazing cast, great acting and gorgeously filmed. It's hard to live up to a classic book but they did it well.

Even if Ang Lee weren't a great film maker (and he is), his adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility would have triumphed just on the casting. Kate Winslet, Gemma Jones, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Imogen Stubbs, the perfectly sour Harriet Walter, even the small roles afforded Tom Wilkinson, Imelda Staunton and Hugh Lorie... But it's Emma Thompson who's meant to take and break your earth as Elinor Dashwood, a pragmatic but disappointed Austen heroine surrounded by melodrama, who has to parcel out for herself whether one should pursue love or practicality when it comes to marriage. Her character is as restrained as Winslet's is emotional, even if both are tragic, and it's how much she bottles up inside that makes us crave for a release. Lee and his impeccable ensemble manage to get to the core of Austen's tragi-comical writing, making the dated melodrama simply a background to the exploration of women's limited options in the 19th Century, and sadly, beyond. There are enough characters here given heft to create a large, textured portrait.

The film rests on Emma Thompsons performance as Eleanor and Alan Rickman''s performance as Brandon. They keep the film grounded and away from becoming a melodrama considering everything that goes on. They're so good I hardly noticed the time go by. Really enjoyed it :)