Editing Sense and Sensibility (film) (section)

=== Critical response ===
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 | source  = —Michael Dwyer in a review for ''[[The Irish Times]]''<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24942856.html |title=Tea, tears and sympathy "Sense And Sensibility" (PG) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin  |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |first=Michael |last=Dwyer |date=8 March 1996 |access-date=23 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611030004/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-24942856.html |archive-date=11 June 2014 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
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''Sense and Sensibility'' received widespread critical acclaim, and was included on more than a hundred top-ten of the year lists.<ref name="tcmfmiller" /> On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has a 97% approval rating based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 8.00/10. The website's consensus reads, "''Sense and Sensibility'' is an uncommonly deft, very funny Jane Austen adaptation, marked by Emma Thompson's finely tuned performance."<ref name="tomatoes">{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1068832-sense_and_sensibility/ |title=Sense and Sensibility (1995) |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media|Fandango]] |access-date=24 August 2021 |archive-date=20 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220054313/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1068832-sense_and_sensibility/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has an average score of 84 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sense-and-sensibility |title=Sense and Sensibility Reviews |website=[[Metacritic]] |access-date=13 December 2019 |archive-date=29 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200429142428/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sense-and-sensibility |url-status=live }}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a grade "A" on scale of A to F.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |title= SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995) A |work= [[CinemaScore]] |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date= 20 December 2018 }}</ref>

Writing for ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' magazine, [[Todd McCarthy]] observed that the film's success was assisted by its "highly skilled cast of actors", as well as its choice of Lee as director. McCarthy clarified, "Although [Lee's] previously revealed talents for dramatizing conflicting social and generational traditions will no doubt be noted, Lee's achievement here with such foreign material is simply well beyond what anyone could have expected and may well be posited as the cinematic equivalent of [[Kazuo Ishiguro]] writing ''[[The Remains of the Day]]''."<ref>{{cite news |author-link= Todd McCarthy |first= Todd |last= McCarthy |url= https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117904735 |title= Sense and Sensibility |work= [[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date= 3 December 1995 |access-date= 1 September 2012 |archive-date= 19 October 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211019184607/https://variety.com/1995/film/reviews/sense-and-sensibility-3-1200444193/ |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[Mick LaSalle]] of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' lauded the film for containing a sense of urgency "that keeps the pedestrian problems of an unremarkable 18th century family immediate and personal."<ref name="sfgate">{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/A-Fine-Sensibility-Emma-Thompson-adapts-Jane-3018044.php |title=A fine 'Sensibility', Emma Thompson adapts Jane Austen's classic story |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |date=13 December 1995 |first=Mick |last=LaSalle |author-link=Mick LaSalle |access-date=31 August 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026115337/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/A-Fine-Sensibility-Emma-Thompson-adapts-Jane-3018044.php |archive-date=26 October 2012 }}</ref> LaSalle concluded that the adaptation has a "right balance of irony and warmth. The result is a film of great understanding and emotional clarity, filmed with an elegance that never calls attention to itself."<ref name="sfgate" /> Film critic [[John Simon (critic)|John Simon]] praised most of the film, particularly focusing on Thompson's performance, though he criticised Grant for being "much too adorably bumbling&nbsp;... he urgently needs to chasten his onscreen persona, and stop hunching his shoulders like a [[dromedary]]."{{sfn|Simon|2005|p=484}} Other major critics such as LaSalle, [[Roger Ebert]], [[James Berardinelli]] and [[Janet Maslin]] praised Grant's performance.<ref name="Ebert">{{cite web |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |author1-link=Roger Ebert |title=Sense And Sensibility |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sense-and-sensibility-1995 |website=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |publisher=RogerEbert.com |date=13 December 1995 |access-date=1 January 2021 |archive-date=8 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208180730/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sense-and-sensibility-1995 |url-status=live }}</ref> Maslin wrote, Grant "rises touchingly to the film's most straightforward and meaningful encounters."<ref name="Maslin">{{cite web |date=13 December 1995 |last=Maslin |first=Janet |author-link=Janet Maslin |title=FILM REVIEW;In Mannerly Search of Marriageable Men (Published 1995) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/13/movies/film-review-in-mannerly-search-of-marriageable-men.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=1 January 2021 |archive-date=3 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703045401/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/13/movies/film-review-in-mannerly-search-of-marriageable-men.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Jay Carr of ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' thought that Lee "nail[ed] Austen's acute social observation and tangy satire," and viewed Thompson and Winslet's age discrepancy as a positive element that helped feed the dichotomy of sense and sensibility.<ref>{{cite news |first=Jay |last=Carr |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8355832.html |title=Thompson makes glorious 'Sense' |work=[[Boston Globe]] |date=13 December 1995 |access-date=23 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111044859/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8355832.html |archive-date=11 November 2013  }}</ref> The ''[[Radio Times]]''{{'}} David Parkinson was equally appreciative of Lee's direction, writing that he "avoid[s] the chocolate-box visuals that cheapen so many British costume dramas" and "brings a refreshing period realism to the tale of two sisters that allows Emma Thompson's respectful Oscar-winning script to flourish."<ref name="RadioTimesreview" />

Although as others have pointed out, the adaptation is not faithful to Austen's novel: "Thompson plays fast and loose with Austen, cutting huge chunks out of the novel, adding whole scenes; a mere six or seven lines from the book actually make it into the film".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/dec/26/favourite-film-sense-and-sensibility|title=My favourite film: Sense and Sensibility|website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date=26 December 2011|access-date=13 December 2016|archive-date=29 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129155012/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/dec/26/favourite-film-sense-and-sensibility|url-status=live}}</ref>