Sense and Sensibility (2026) Review: Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles Carry a Faithful Austen

Yes, the 2026 Sense and Sensibility is worth watching, and the first thing to settle is which version you are reading about. This is Georgia Oakley's adaptation, with Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, photographed in Sussex and Devon by Arnaud Potier and released by Focus Features in October 2026. It is not Ang Lee's 1995 film with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, and it is not the 2008 BBC miniseries. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 77 percent from 106 critic reviews and Metacritic at 71 from 40, both checked October 21, 2026.

The business is healthy for a literary adaptation. Box Office Mojo, checked October 21, 2026, has the film at $7,887,315 domestic and $19,188,315 worldwide, including $11,301,000 from outside North America, with a $7,203,465 US opening on October 16 through Focus Features. It premiered at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on September 15 and at the Delphi Filmpalast in Berlin on September 21. The US certificate is PG and the runtime is 132 minutes.

Spoiler-free verdict: Watch it. A 132-minute PG adaptation of Sense and Sensibility directed by Georgia Oakley, with Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne, shot in Flat 1.66:1. Rotten Tomatoes says 77 percent from 106 critic reviews and Metacritic says 71 from 40, checked October 21, 2026. It is faithful, and the wit thins out in the middle.

What the 2026 Sense and Sensibility is about

Mr. Dashwood is dead, and his will leaves the Sussex house to his son John (Tom Brooke) from a first marriage, with the money that should have gone to his three daughters left out. John's wife Fanny (Stacy Martin) talks him out of paying it, and the couple move into the house. Mrs. Dashwood (Caitríona Balfe) cannot bear to accept charity, so she takes Elinor, Marianne and their youngest sister Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) to a small cottage in Devon, offered at a reduced rent by a distant relative, Mrs. Jennings (Fiona Shaw).

Elinor falls for Edward Ferrars (George MacKay), Fanny's brother, and he is the film's steadiest thing. Entertainment Weekly's Tiffany Kelly laid out the difference from the book: in this version his parents betroth him to Lucy Steele (Ceara Coveney) and want him to break it off once she loses her family fortune, and he honours the commitment, although he has no love for her and she has none for him. Marianne, who puts Austen's own line to her sister in the film, "I reveal nothing, I conceal nothing", falls for John Willoughby (Frank Dillane), who sweeps her off her feet and then leaves for London for a year and does not write. Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum), a family friend, is fond of her and cannot get through to her.

Diana Reid wrote the screenplay. Potier shot it, Izabella Curry edited it and Roger Goula scored it. Working Title Films and November Pictures made it, and Focus Features and Universal Pictures released it.

Cast and performances

Edgar-Jones plays Elinor with the film's best instincts. Peyton Robinson in RogerEbert.com, who gave the film four stars, watched her "pained glances flutter into attempted neutrality" and found that every time the camera catches Elinor feeling something, the restraint makes it land harder.

Creed-Miles is the discovery. Robinson called her "the film's standout," and she plays Marianne with a volume Elinor never touches, weeping in the rain scored by Goula in the one scene the film plays at full power. MacKay keeps Edward Ferrars on a low flame, and Frank Dillane's John Willoughby is the other discovery of the picture. Beatrice Loayza in Variety called Dillane "a slouching, smug-faced scoundrel" and "perhaps the only major presence in the film that brings an unstudied lightness and humor to this world of breath-held decorum."

Fiona Shaw is Mrs. Jennings and she takes the film by the throat. Stacy Martin's Fanny is the sharpest comic creation in the cast, and Caitríona Balfe gets less to do as the mother, which is roughly what the novel gives her.

What works

The sisters. This version puts the relationship at the centre where the 1995 film put the two romances first, and the change pays off. Ryan Lattanzio in IndieWire found that the screenplay "doesn't always elegantly entwine the two sisters' trajectories," and that Marianne's second-act breakdown can feel cut off from the rest of the picture, but he also found that the strands "coalesce beautifully in an emotionally overwhelming finale."

The look. Potier's camera, in Flat 1.66:1, gives Sussex and Devon a weather. Lattanzio described "inky skies and tall, wan grasses" and costumes that "look lived-in and worn by real people of the period." Oakley also keeps the physical cost of the period in frame, the hills and the multi-day journeys by horse carriage, instead of leaving the sisters in a soft country idyll.

The pairing. The script gives Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles opposite problems, and the film knows what to do with both of them. Edward and Elinor dance a restrained waltz at the London ball, and Marianne and Willoughby tear through a riotous country folk dance. The film cuts between the two, and the contrast does the work.

What doesn't

The wit. Loayza in Variety made the fairest objection: "Oakley's more grounded drama also feels oddly safe, with a seriousness of tone that strips away some of the wit and comedy that makes Austen's work, well, Austenesque." A Jane Austen adaptation that drops the irony is a costume drama.

The comparison. The most useful line came from Lacy Baugher Milas in the Washington City Paper, who called this "a moody Jane Austen update for a new generation" that "doesn't quite reach the heights of Ang Lee's 1995 classic." Rotten Tomatoes' own consensus says much the same, that Oakley's film "may not best previous adaptations but achieves a wistful identity of its own."

The leads' ceiling. Loayza, who liked the film, found the lovebirds tender without being surprising. The two actors give the film its warmth and give it nothing else, and the second half of the story has to work harder to earn the big emotion it is aiming at.

What audiences say

Rotten Tomatoes has the Tomatometer at 77 percent from 106 critic reviews and the Popcornmeter at 88 percent from more than 250 verified ratings. Metacritic has it at 71 from 40 critic reviews, which the site labels "Generally Favorable," split 70 percent positive, 28 percent mixed and 3 percent negative, and the user score there is 6.5 from 8 ratings. IMDb has it at 7.3 from 4,127 votes. Letterboxd's member average is 4.0 out of 5, and 1,600 members have the film on their lists. TMDB has it at 7.3 from 42 votes. RogerEbert.com gave it four stars out of four on October 17, 2026, and IndieWire's grade was B+.

The audience numbers sit on much smaller samples than the critic ones. Metacritic's users have 8 ratings. TMDB has 42 votes. The IMDb figure is the one with a large sample behind it, and the gap between a 6.5 from 8 ratings and a 7.3 from 4,127 votes is a reminder of how little a small panel proves. Every figure in this section was checked on October 21, 2026.

Where to watch Sense and Sensibility (2026)

Sense and Sensibility is in US cinemas and not yet on a streaming service. JustWatch checked 376 streaming services on October 21, 2026 and found no US offer for the film, and TMDB's US watch-provider list is empty as well. Tickets are on sale through Atom Tickets, Cinemark, Cinepolis Cinemas, Harkins Theatres, B&B Theatres and Marcus Theatres. In India, JustWatch checked 92 services on the same day and could not announce a streaming date yet. It played in the United Kingdom from September 25 and opened across the United States on October 16.

Current availability, cast details and member reviews sit on our Sense and Sensibility streaming options and member reviews page.

Verdict

Is Sense and Sensibility (2026) worth watching? Yes, and it is the rare new Austen adaptation that is more interested in the sisters than in the suitors. Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles give Elinor and Marianne two different kinds of courage, and Frank Dillane turns Willoughby into a rake with a point of view.

The catch is the tone. Oakley's England is wintry, the script is dutiful and the joke count is low, and the film is not the equal of Ang Lee's. Metacritic's 71 and Rotten Tomatoes' 77 percent both say a good adaptation rather than a great one, and those numbers are honest. The book is still the better read, and this one makes the case for picking it up.

Spoiler warning: the ending of Sense and Sensibility

Marianne falls gravely ill at the Devon cottage after walking out in the rain to see Willoughby's estate. Willoughby arrives at the house drunk, professes his love and asks to see her, and Elinor's sympathy for him collapses when he dismisses what he did to Eliza. Colonel Brandon ejects him, and then the film does something the book does not: the duel happens on screen, with the two men walking out with pistols while the family watches from a window. Brandon fires into the air and Willoughby misses. Marianne's first real thought of Brandon comes in that moment, when she worries about his safety.

The film also changes Eliza. The younger Eliza is cut out of the story entirely, and Willoughby instead impregnates the elder Eliza, Brandon's dead sister-in-law, who dies. She never appears on screen.

The last act belongs to Elinor. Mrs. Jennings tells her that Lucy Steele has married Robert, the brother who inherited the Ferrars fortune, which means Edward is free. Elinor runs after him, they say what they feel, and they kiss. The film ends there. No wedding is shown, and none is shown for Marianne and Brandon either, though the two of them have a conversation that says everything the film needs to say about their future.

Entertainment Weekly's Tiffany Kelly documented the changes, and she noted what the film leaves out. Austen only briefly mentions the marriages in passing, and this adaptation ends before any of them happen. It also does not show Willoughby's reaction to Marianne's eventual marriage, which the 1995 film did.