Sense and Sensibility - Hallmark

I had more fun watching Sense and Sensibility on Saturday night than I’ve had during any Hallmark movie premiere so far this year. I have so much to say about this one, so let's dive right in and talk about it!

Sense and Sensibility was not only the last of the Jane Austen-themed movies for February, it actually was the Jane Austen story. There were no ghosts or visions this time, no time-travel, it really was Sense and Sensibility. At least I think it was!

I say that because I’m reviewing this as someone who has not read the book or seen any of the previous movies. So, unlike Pride & Prejudice, I won’t be comparing it to anything else that has been done before and I can't say whether or not this was true to the book. That’s why I said, “I think it was.” I’m just speaking from the viewpoint of someone who is watching a new Hallmark movie for the first time and it just happens to be a Jane Austen story.

It was released under Hallmark’s Mahogany brand, so despite what I just said before, I realize what made this particular rendition different from any other version of this movie is the cast was predominantly black. And even though this was obviously something new for this story, I thought they did a superb job of blending the families. 

The talent was undeniable, from the sets and the costume designs to the actors cast in these roles. Now, as stunning as some of these costumes were, I have to admit they might have been a little overdone. By that I’m referring to all the bright colors. And I suspect the fabrics may not have been true to the period. But I decided to just enjoy them for what they were because this was a Hallmark movie and some of them really were stunning. The characters were so believable to me - again, I don’t know if they were true to the book or not - but I was captivated during the entire two hours it aired. And I had more fun live-posting on Twitter during the premiere than I’ve had so far this year. People were interacting with me. I was interacting with other fans of Hallmark movies watching it live. It was a great example of why I just love doing this. 

So, the story is about the Dashwood family, a widow and her three daughters who are used to living a life of luxury, suddenly finding themselves starting over with very little income and in need of finding a new home. 

Mrs. Dashwood, the mother, is played by Susan Lawson-Reynolds. Just as an aside, as a mother with grown children myself I felt a particular connection with her. She was understandably frightened of the unknown and starting over. But she was also protective of her children. Fortunately, her eldest daughter, Elinor, had the composure of a rock and was just as protective of her.

Elinor was played by Deborah Ayorinde. She was the most level-headed of them all, always looking out for and doing what was best by her family despite all that she went through herself. I think this actress had the most complicated role of anyone. She bottled up so much of what she felt inside and yet the emotions still came across on screen. That was talent.

Marianne was played by Bethany Antonia. She was very much the middle child who was still young and naive and wore her emotions on her sleeve. She spoke her mind and didn’t care what anyone thought, unless his name was Willoughby, of course!

Margaret, the youngest daughter and played by Beth Angus, was just too cute. I loved the way she interacted with Edward Ferrars! I could easily see how much fun she and Dan Jeannotte, who played Edward, had with their scenes together.

Edward was a complicated character. It was obvious he fell in love with Elinor, but he never acted on it and technically, he never really said or did anything inappropriately with her other than to hide this one very big secret from everyone. You see, he was already engaged to someone else. Someone he was no longer in love with but he had too much honor to go back on his word and call it off. The thing about Edward is, we were kept in the dark about his past and left to guess whether or not he was to be trusted until the very end.

There were two other important men in this story. Both of whom had strong feelings for Marianne. Meet Colonel Brandon, played by Akile Largie and John Willoughby, played by Victor Hugo.

The story opens with the entire Dashwood family surrounding Mr. Dashwood who is very ill and on his deathbed. Apart from his three daughters mentioned above, he has an older son from a prior marriage, John Dashwood. He explains that John must be the sole heir of their home, Norland Park, but asks John to promise him, his dying father, that he will look after his stepmother and sisters and see that they are well cared for. Unfortunately, once he told his own wife, Fanny, about this promise he made, she sees to it that that never happens.

Now while John and Fanny are staying at Norland Park, checking out the estate that they’re about to move into, Fanny’s half-brother Edward pays them a visit. Edward is not quite as driven by wealth as his sister Fanny, and appears to prefer a quieter, country life. He and Elinor quickly form a strong connection.  He even has a cute relationship with the youngest daughter, Margaret, who likes to play pirates and Edward played right along with her.

The Dashwoods soon realize they no longer have a home at Norland so they begin searching for a new place to live. Elinor confesses she has contacted a cousin of theirs, Sir John Middleton of Barton Park. Although they’ve never met him, he’s sympathetic to their situation and he offers to rent them a cottage of his at a reasonable price. So they left by the end of the week to live in a new home they had never seen before. Edwards says goodbye to Elinor and gives her a new sketchbook as a parting gift with a promise that he’ll visit. He never professes his true feelings to her, but this is where he admits that his life is rather complicated.

I have to say I’ve noticed some Hallmark movies tend to move rather slowly for a while once the characters have been introduced. But not so with this one. There is so much story to pack into these two hours - with commercials by the way - and we haven’t met nearly all the characters, yet!

When they arrive at the cottage in Devonshire, which is hardly a cottage by my standards but compared to the estate at Norland Park that they just left I can understand why they would find it “cozy,” the Dashwoods are greeted by their cousin, Sir John Middleton, one of the most amiable characters I’ve seen! A little chatty and a bit pushy, perhaps, but he has a wonderful sense of humor and, on a more serious note, invites them to dinner at his estate, Barton Park, and insists that they dine with him every night until they’re settled in. He even offers them one of his servants to help get them situated.

I have a little bit of a critique of this next scene, which is difficult for me because I don’t know how it’s described in the book, but the interior rooms of this cottage are quite lavish in their own right. The rooms are certainly smaller than the Dashwoods are used to at Norland Park, but honestly I expected the accommodations to be slightly more modest than what we see here. 

In the next scene Marianne, who is very talented at the piano, is entertaining everyone at Barton Park, including her mother and sisters, Sir John Middleton and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Jennings. Mrs. Jennings is equally chatty and as outspoken as Sir John Middleton and expresses an immediate interest in finding eligible suitors for the girls.

While Mrs. Jennings is rambling on over Marianne’s playing, in comes Colonel Brandon, who immediately notices Marianne. Colonel Brandon is introduced as an old friend and military hero who served with Sir John Middleton in the East Indies. His own home of Delaford is described by Mrs. Jennings as “simply majestic.” Of course, while Elinor notices Brandon’s interest in Marianne’s music, Marianne is not even remotely interested in him. She feels he’s too mature and reserved for her taste. And at this point in the story, that’s probably a true statement.

The next day we meet another pivotal character, Mr. Willoughby. He arrives while Marianne and her younger sister, Margaret whom they usually call Meg, are out walking in the countryside. Meg sees a gentleman riding up on horseback and, mistaking him for Colonel Brandon, runs down the hillside to greet him. Marianne hurries to catch up but she trips and falls downhill, twisting her ankle.

We learn that Mr. Willoughby visits Devonshire every year to visit his aunt who’s large estate he will one day inherit. He is quite the charmer and Marianne is swept off her feet, quite literally by him. And ultimately, she falls deeply in love with him.

We soon find out that things might be more complicated with Willoughby than they first appeared when he runs into Colonel Brandon at Barton Park. The cold reception by Brandon was quite telling. But Brandon has plenty of his own secrets yet to be revealed as well.

Over the course of the next hour we see Willoughby continuing to woo Marianne. She falls in love with him so deeply that, I believe, she does not realize she only loves what she wants to see in him, without really knowing anything about his true character.

As a matter of fact, all the men in this movie seem to have secrets that we won’t find out about until the very end. They’ve hinted at Brandon developing feelings for Marianne, but she’s in love with Willoughby. And then, after he has invited everyone to a picnic at his brother-in-law’s estate, including Willoughby, despite his negative feelings toward him, he receives an urgent telegram that he responds to by leaving immediately with no explanation. See, lots of secrets and intrigue in this one!

Rumors spread about everyone, some of which are true but spun out of context. Willoughby hints at a promise of a proposal to Marianne but then abandons her the next day never to return to her. And this is where we see the stark contrast in the characters of these two sisters. Marianne is so blind as to what Elinor is going through that she tells her, “This is what true love feels like, Elinor. You wouldn’t understand.” 

If I haven’t said it before, I am so impressed by Deborah Ayorinde’s portrayal of Elinor. She didn’t just sit quietly while Marianne poured her heart out to her, well okay, she did, and that’s kind of the point. She did so despite the fact that she was feeling so much heartache herself and it showed in her face. And she didn’t even realize things were only going to get worse for her very soon.

When just at that very moment Edward comes riding up! The chemistry between Elinor and Edward picks up right where it left off when they all left Norland Park. Only the secrets and more rumors continue to circulate and “worse” happens the very next day when Lucy Steele shows up with her sister, Anne, and it turns out they both know Edward. We just don’t know how or why, yet.

Believe it or not, we weren’t even an hour into the movie at this point. There was still so much yet to happen and so many secrets to come out in the second half of the movie.  What was no secret is how captivated I was watching it at this point. I posted on Twitter for the full two hours and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  

Although I had no idea exactly how they would pull it off, somehow Elinor and Marianne did have their happy ending. Of course I just knew they had to, it’s a Hallmark movie after all. But the suspense kept me on edge and I actually teared up a bit twice - once was when Elinor finally unloaded her feelings to Marianne, and then again at the end when things finally worked out for Elinor.

My only critique was that more time couldn’t be spent showing us Marianne falling in love again. We know she did, and I was so glad she also had her happy ending, but that part of the storyline didn’t even start until the last 15 minutes of the movie, and it was wrapped up in about 8 minutes total. And within that short time there was a scene where Colonel Brandon picked up Marianne and carried her, but that felt a little awkward because at that point all we knew was that she was just standing in the rain feeling sorry for herself. So why didn’t he talk to her and try to convince her to come home? We find out the reason was that she was too weak to walk back on her own, but that wasn’t clear to me when he first picked her up. I suppose perhaps it was a bit much of an undertaking to fit this entire story into a two-hour television movie - with commercials! 

But I can’t deny it was most definitely what I would call a magical evening watching this one and I will absolutely enjoy watching it again and again. And I will no doubt get choked up at the end every time I see it.  Like I said in the beginning, I've never read the book nor seen any of the other movies, so I don’t actually know if this rendition was true to the book. 

And I know I’m stalling about giving it a rating. I’m trying to be selective about giving a movie a perfect 5 out of 5. So, I think because of the rushed ending for Marianne I’m going to give it 4½ out of 5. 

What did you think? I took a peek at some of the reviews online and I can see they’re all over the place, which honestly doesn’t surprise me. I know how I would feel if they remade Pride and Prejudice. I mean, did you see my review on An American in Austen?

Review - An American in Austen  

I would love to know what your thoughts are about this movie. I’m sure many of you have some strong feelings one way or another. So please share your own opinions in the comments below. I’m always interested in a good conversation and not just with those who agree with me. And yes, I do plan to read the actual book now, too!

Well I think that wraps up my thoughts on Hallmark's Sense and Sensibility.  As always, thank you so much for joining me for this week's Magical Movie Club review.  We'll be back next week to chat more about our favorite Magical Movies! 

Hallmark Channel's Original Preview: Sense and Sensibility Preview

Hallmark Channel Movie Site: Hallmark Channel - Sense and Sensibility