Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility is one of the most eye-catching films you’re likely to see this year, but as an adaption of Jane Austen’s first novel — which she published anonymously; its authorship was originally “By A Lady” — it feels, ironically, cinematically anonymous. There’s an awkwardness to its unfolding, thanks in large part to how it engages with the novel’s tone — or rather, how it fails to — resulting in a film that barely splits the difference between social farce and genuine romance. It’s certainly watchable, but when it comes to such esteemed material, is that enough?

Sticking closely to its source, the late eighteenth century plot follows the plight of the Dashwood family — primarily sisters Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) — when their patriarch dies, leaving them with little and forcing them to vacate their lush estate. Along with their mother, Mrs. Dashwood (Caitríona Balfe), and younger sister Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), the girls soon relocate to a more humble abode. Elinor and Marianne then become respectively smitten with eligible bachelors amid the complications of procedure surrounding marriage, engagement, and inheritance in Georgian England.

These societal confines determine the movie’s dramatic contours as the headstrong Elinor reminisces about her summer spent with the dashing Edward Ferrars (George Mackay), and the more sprightly Marianne becomes acquainted — by way of a classic, bumbling meet-cute — with the roguish John Willoughby (Frank Dillane) while rejecting the advances of the too-uptight Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum). As questions about the sisters’ financial compatibilities clash with the men’s white lies and half-truths, things gradually fall apart.

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