Hallmark's Sense And Sensibility: Ship It Or Skip It
It's never a good thing when the cast of a movie collectively phones in their performances, but that's exactly what happened in Hallmark's latest version of "Sense and Sensibility," which is part of their 2024 Loveuary event. There have been many film and television adaptations of Jane Austen's eponymous novel, with the 1995 version starring Emma Thompson being perhaps the most revered modern iteration, garnering a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Sadly, the Hallmark interpretation pales in comparison.
What makes the novel work is that the characters aren't very forthright in what they say, with the male characters often talking in cryptic euphemisms that make the women wonder what exactly they mean. There's none of that here, and it comes across as a paint-by-numbers version of the story. All the Austen beats are there, such as the death of patriarch Henry Dashwood, as well as Marianne Dashwood (Bethany Antonia), who has trouble making up her mind about two men she's interested in, and her sister Elinor Dashwood (Deborah Ayorinde) wants a guy that she'll never have.
While the 1995 version is over two hours, this new one clocks in at under an hour and a half, and by any standard, that makes it hard to do justice to the novel. Thankfully, Hallmark's isn't any longer, as it's tough to get through the plodding pace. And while all the actors in their own careers are really good, they appeared as if they'd rather be in any other film than this one.
The costumes and set design were top notch
Generally, period-piece films are chock full of lavish sets and astounding costumes. Considering the average Hallmark movie has a budget of around $2 million, they tend to do impressive work with such minuscule funding. Loveuary's "Sense and Sensibility" works on that front with set pieces that look authentic to the period and impressive costumes. According to NPR, Tia A. Smith, the film's creative producer, explained that every little aspect of its look was painstakingly created, and "every detail, every choice is deliberate."
In 2023 and 2024, Hallmark has gone to great lengths to develop unique settings and concepts so that their movies don't all seem like carbon copies of each other, such as "Paging Mr. Darcy," which was set at a Jane Austen enthusiast convention. With "Sense and Sensibility," the channel went against traditional expectations by hiring Black actors for most lead roles. Deborah Ayorinde is a British-Nigerian actress who has been in several TV shows, including "Luke Cage" and "Them," and always churns out great performances. But here, she just seems to be unenthused as the down-to-earth Elinor.
Dan Jeannotte plays the man she wants, Edward Ferrars, and also does an adequate job, but there are few sparks between them. He's well-known for wonderfully playing Captain James T. Kirk's brother Sam Kirk in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," but it's like he's mentally checked out for this project.
The film may have been a rush job
In Hallmark's new adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," Marianne Dashwood's portrayer, Bethany Antonia, tries hard to stay focused on the scenes. Still, there's no chemistry between her and Akil Largie, who plays Colonel Brandon ("The Sandman" 2022) — whose perpetual scowl makes him seem constipated. This version was written by Tim Huddleston, who only has one feature under his belt, so his inexperience may have been a factor as to why the movie didn't have the punch it needed to be truly entertaining and why he missed key themes in Austen's novel.
The flaws in this film may be due to the fact that it could have been a rush job. In September 2023, the EVP of programming at Hallmark Media, Lisa Hamilton Daly, explained to Variety that they saw the writers' strike coming, so they worked fastidiously to ensure that their Christmas movie season wouldn't be wiped out. This mentality of rushing to get films out may have continued after their holiday films were made and translated to this film. If they just had more time to tweak the script and give the actors some heady drama to lose themselves in, "Sense and Sensibility" might have been a more dynamic and entertaining interpretation.
Using Victorian-era slang, while the 1995 film left us with a gigglemug (happy) feeling, this version is complete balderdash. We say skip it!