When it comes to remakes, I’ll be the first person to tell you they’re not needed in 2026. Oftentimes, remakes feel lazy and like a cash grab. But I will make exceptions for remakes when it comes to classic books like Sense and Sensibility. And this time around, Georgia Oakley is the director behind this new iteration of Jane Austen’s classic novel, taking something old and keeping the bones of it while molding something new. And it works.
Works like Sense and Sensibility connect with a modern audience because they’re relatable. Austin’s story in particular weaves a tale of women being promised that all things will be solved through marriage. And even in 2026, it’s never that simple, we never get what was promised in the first place, and our own passions are ignored in the name of duty, sense, or motherhood. Basically it’s not black and white. It never has been. And there is no one way to love, live, or especially to be a woman.
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Now, I will also admit that when I saw the first trailer for Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility, I was worried.
Firstly, there was the drab look of it all like color didn’t exist back then. And secondly, there was the modern sensibilities of the women’s hair. But after watching the film, I truly think my modern sensibilities made it a bigger deal than it actually was. Just because it didn’t have sweeping technicolor doesn’t mean that these actors, the director, the cinematographer, etc. didn’t bring life to this world. They did in a way that made Sense and Sensibility feel expansive, beautiful, and full of wonder.
Then there’s the hair in Sense and Sensibility.
That was a really big conversation online because it was unlike anything we’ve seen in a period drama. Most of the time, the women in period pieces are done up and nearly perfect in every sense. And that’s always led to a disconnect for me because I don’t see myself in these heroines, from their looks to their drama or romances. But I know myself. And in our private moments, we do not look prim and proper with not a curl out of place. We let our hair down just like Elinor and Marianne did.
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Not that I totally loved it, though. I thought that Marianne’s hair was a little bit too ‘let’s go to the beach’ for this era. And I understand that she’s supposed to be the free-spirited one. But her look was the one thing that kept taking me out of the experience in comparison to Elinor’s hair, that had a freedom to it, but also sensibilities of that era. There was balance with Elinor and not so much with Marianne, despite how I felt that seeing them undone in this manner added a vulnerability that I really liked in the film.
Although Sense and Sensibility is mainly perceived as a romance to a general societal consciousness, it continues to be a story about sisterhood. And I believe that this is the strongest part of the movie. Almost it’s beating heart. The love between Elinor and Marianne is earth shattering, quiet, rageful, jealous, sweet, and all of these other emotions that speak of the complexity of sisterhood.
That’s not to say that I didn’t like the romances in Sense and Sensibility either.
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Elinor and Edward felt earned. And I think their quiet moments were so much more poignant than any sweeping dramatic ones. As for Marianne and the Colonel, Sense and Sensibility tried to make me love them, and didn’t quite get there. They felt undercooked but not without a gentleness and perseverance that you want to see more of. Unfortunately, you’re not going to see them fully fall into each other’s arms in the same way that Elinor and Edward do, especially because the insufferable Willoughby is such a looming presence most of the movie.
Overall, I think Sense and Sensibility, despite its drawbacks, is a solid film that is an exemption from the no remake rule I have due to its themes, the magnificent bond between the sisters, and the hard earned romances. Also, I’m a sucker for women of all ages, including people who have never read Sense and Sensibility or Jane Austen, picking up this book and connecting with a woman’s experience hundreds of years ago.
In a way it almost feels like reaching out of hand to them, understanding their experience, and keeping the fight going for our futures, passions, families, and loves in the present.
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Sense and Sensibility hits theaters October 16, 2026.
