Jane Austen has survived two centuries of changing tastes, endless adaptations, and audiences who arrive knowing exactly how her romances are supposed to feel. Sense and Sensibility, however, has not been left untouched by time. Now, Georgia Oakley, armed with Daisy Edgar-Jones, is taking a familiar story back to the screen, with early reviews beginning to give the new version its own identity.

The Dashwoods are returning to the big screen, but this time they are being asked to live beyond the shadow of a beloved classic, one that falls under the Tomatometer. 

The new Sense and Sensibility has opened its critical run with an 80% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 10 reviews at the time of writing. Directed by Georgia Oakley and written by Diana Reid, the film returns to Jane Austen’s 1811 novel about Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, sisters whose lives are thrown into uncertainty after their father’s death. Their move from Norland Park to a modest cottage sets the stage for romance, heartbreak, social pressure, and the very different ways the sisters understand love.

That story already has a formidable cinematic legacy. Ang Lee’s 1995 adaptation, led by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, which holds a 97% critic score on RT, remains the version most closely associated with Austen’s novel, inevitably making any new interpretation an exercise in comparison.

Oakley’s film, however, approaches the material through the relationship between the sisters, with Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne. Oakley has described this version as more interested in their bond being symbiotic, rather than treating Elinor as the sensible sister who must teach Marianne a lesson.

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The new Dashwood family comes with a familiar collection of romantic complications, but a cast designed to give each relationship its own texture.

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles are the leading ladies being joined by Caitríona Balfe as Mrs. Dashwood and Bodhi Rae Breathnach as Margaret. Frank Dillane plays John Willoughby, while Herbert Nordrum takes on Colonel Brandon. George MacKay is set to appear as Edward Ferrars, with Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings.

The film had its world premiere in London on September 15, with the cast and crew gathering ahead of its theatrical release. Focus Features currently lists Sense and Sensibility for October 16, 2026, in the US, with a 2-hour-12-minute runtime.

The film also marks another Austen collaboration for Focus Features and Working Title, following the elaborately cast Pride & Prejudice and Emma. Following these, an 80% beginning gives Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility something useful before audiences even arrive: a critical conversation of its own.

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Has the whopping RT score added to your anticipation for the new Jane Austen adaptation? Let us know in the comments.