By Courtney McCullers
This October brings a new screen adaptation of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Each version confirms what readers have known for centuries: What Jane Austen understood about women and storytelling is still true.
People know her for charming romances, but she helped invent techniques central to the modern novel. One is free indirect discourse, which lets a character’s private thoughts blend directly into the narration. Writers who came after her absorbed the technique so completely that it now just reads as how novels work.
Scholars point to Austen’s meticulous, deliberate craftsmanship and often describe her narrative perspective as more complex than she typically gets credit for.
Her characters are recognizable types, and her themes still hold true two centuries later. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is literal in its title: Each of the two sisters at its center represents one of those qualities, and the story asks which better protects a woman. Women today are still sorted as too emotional or too composed and are rewarded or penalized accordingly.
Austen’s novels remain relevant to modern feminist discussion because her heroines navigate a patriarchal landscape, asserting their independence while seeking love, respect and financial security. Women today still weigh whether a partner is worth building a life around. For many, independence remains conditional, tied to a partner, a family or the unpaid labor waiting at home.
The new adaptation breathes life into that same story. The director is Georgia Oakley, whose 2022 debut BLUE JEAN earned a BAFTA nomination. She has said she wants this version to feel “lived-in” rather than polished. Novelist Diana Reid, author of the award-winning debut novel Love & Virtue, wrote the screenplay.
Early reviews call the film witty, earnest and unexpectedly moving, which suggests it stays true to Austen. Both the director and the screenwriter are women, a fitting detail for a story so much about women’s interior lives.
Two centuries after Austen wrote it, audiences are still showing up for this story. You can too.
Come see a preview of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY with your best friends and sisters on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at a special Early Access Movie Party. Dress in your comfiest pajamas and settle in for a timeless story of romance, friendship and sisterhood.