Sense and Sensibility review

 Number 580 on the top 1000 films of all time is Ang Lee's 1995 period drama 'Sense and Sensibility.'

Based on Jane Austen's book of the same name, Sense and Sensibility follows the Dashwood sisters: Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet) after their father (Tom Wilkinson) dies leaving them penniless. To guarantee their financial security, they must marry. Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) and Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) are their respective suitors.

In completing this challenge, I naturally watch a lot of films and genres that I would have no interest in otherwise. But I aim to watch these with an open mind. Unfortunately, I have never been a fan of period dramas or Jane Austen. I know...I know, I'm a culturally ignorant philistine, but they're so boring. And Sense and Sensibility was no exception. The characters are so far removed from me that I would never relate to them. And the dialogue was as verbose and stuffy as I would expect any adaptation from an nineteenth century book. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and she went onto the win the Oscar. Good for her; in some ways she was a trailblazer for women, like Jane Austen before her. I'm just never going to care about a bunch of rich white people having rich white people problems.

The drama and the stakes were so unbelievably low that there was never any dramatic tension. Nothing exciting happens. Nothing happens. I couldn't have cared less about the Dashwood sisters, so I wasn't particularly bothered whether they went destitute or not. Elinor was slightly less annoying than Marianne who spends most of the film being carried around by the male leads. One point she falls and twists her ankle, but you would think that she's just witnessed a murder. At the end of the film, she runs off into the torrential rain and catches pneumonia causing a big trouble to the rest of the characters. But I guess that's what Marianne is supposed to be like whereas Elinor is more sensible and headstrong.

For me, the one saving grace of this film was Hugh Laurie who had a small but scene-stealing role of Mr Palmer. He and Imelda Staunton, who plays Mrs Palmer, provide a bit of light relief with funny, sarcastic jabs to one another. I say light relief, the film doesn't really need it. It's hardly a dramatic thriller, now, is it? 

I remember when my sisters dragged me to see the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in the cinema. I was so disinterested that I actively slept through the whole film. I should have the done same with Sense and Sensibility. I wouldn't have missed anything.

The Sixth Sense review

 Number 190 on the top 1000 films of all time  is the psychological thriller 'The Sixth Sense.'

Dr Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist whose latest patient is the nine-year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joe Osment.) However, Cole is deeply troubled by his ability to see and speak with the dead.

This film kicked off M. Night Shyamalan's directing career and it's easy to understand why. He created a movie that uses atmosphere to scare its audiences. What Shymalan does so well is keeping the scares subtle and understated. There isn't any gratuitous gore or overused jumpscares, so when do we get scares, they're all the more effective. The film opens with one of Dr Crowe's patients shooting him in the stomach before blowing his brains out. yet the camera pans away and we only hear the gunshot. When Cole is around a classmate's house for a birthday party, he is scared of a particularly locked cupboard. We don't see what's inside it, but we hear a terrified voice screaming not to be put in the dark. Another of the ghosts that Cole sees has been shot in the head, but we don't see the violence itself; only the bloody wound in the back of his head. These allusions were far more powerful than seeing any outright violence.

Shymalan also brought a touch of tragedy to the horror. Cole's sixth sense leads to him being a social outcast while Dr Crowe has a difficult relationship with his wife. The two find a kindred spirit together. Willis and Osment were great opposite each other. In fact, Willis is so well-known for his action man roles, you would think he is little more than a big slab of meat. But this meat can act, and act well. Osment, at eleven-years-old, was equally good. No surprise that he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Toni Collette who played his mother also deserves some praise. She plays a woman under the incredible stress of raising her son by herself. On top of this, he also has a sixth sense that drives a stake between her and Cole. This all culminates in a tearful climax. Collette was also worthy of the Best Supporting Actress nod.

And, although, I won't spoil it here, the ending twist has to be one of the best in movie history, perhaps only second to Old Boy.

Although Shymalan might never have been able to replicate his early success, the Sixth Sense proved that he is a brilliant director who can craft a simultaneously tragic, but scary film.