In a modern story, the women would have demanded explanations.

What gives "Sense and Sensibility" its tension and mystery is that the characters rarely say what they mean. There is great gossip within the women's sphere, but with men, the conversation loops back upon itself in excruciating euphemisms, leaving the women to puzzle for weeks over what was or was not said.

As the story opens, the Dashwood estate passes to a stingy male heir, who provides only a few hundred pounds a year to his father's second wife and her three daughters. The widow Dashwood (Gemma Jones) and her girls find themselves torn from the life of country gentry and forced to live on this meager income in a cottage generously supplied by a distant relative.

It is now the task of the girls to find themselves husbands. The oldest, Elinor (Emma Thompson), is no longer in first flower. The middle, Marianne (Kate Winslet), is in full bloom. The youngest, Margaret (Emile Francois), is still at this point largely interested in tree houses, and hiding under tables in the library. The women spend many hours by the fire at their sewing, waiting for eligible men to drift into their nets, and some of the film's funniest moments have the mother and daughters quickly composing themselves into a tableau of domestic bliss just in time for a man to happen upon them.

The first man in view is Edward (Hugh Grant), the brother-in-law of the stingy Dashwood son. He is charming, and definitely interested in Elinor, but as Marianne observes, "there is something wanting." Exactly what is wanting is explained later in the film, when we discover why Edward is prevented from declaring the full extent of his love.

Edward leaves suddenly for London. The next man to appear is Col. Brandon, played by that indispensable villain Alan Rickman, who is not a villain this time but seems to be, with his dark, brooding air and the speaking style of a sentimental hangman. He is attracted to Marianne, but before he can act, she is smitten by the dashing Willoughby (Greg Wise), who rescues her from a mishap and charms her off her feet. No sooner have these men appeared when they, too, are called away to London - although not before Col. Brandon has suggested, almost by osmosis, that he knows something unspeakable about his rival Willoughby.

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