Netflix: "Sense and Sensibility"

Emma Thompson plays Elinor, who is Sense, and Kate Winslet is Marianne, or Sensibility, which here means something like: impulsive in love.  That is why she falls for Willoughby (Greg Wise) and, having paid the price, emerges somewhat more sensible herself, thereby preparing the way for a doubly happy ending when the obstacle preventing Elinor's wedding to Edward Ferrars, played by Hugh Grant, melts into thin air, too.  The dashing but untrustworthy Willoughby guides his steed to where he can view from a distance the celebration of the double wedding before riding off like the Indian in Minnesota's state seal.  The pleasure the movie vicariously affords was explained by La Rochefoucauld when, in the 17th century, he wrote (I'm paraphrasing): "It is not enough that we should succeed.  Our former lovers must fail."  Ang Lee directs what Jane Austen might have called a tolerable entertainment.