Sense and Sensibility review: Jane Austen romance is weirdly gloomy and depressing

Running time: 131 minutes.Rated PG (thematic elements, partial nudity and brief violence).

In theaters Oct.16.“Sense and Sensibility”? More like doom and gloom.Jane Austen’s 1811 story always begins with a death — that of Henry Dashwood, the dad of Elinor, Marianne and Margaret.

But downer director Georgia Oakley has decided to keep the funeral going right till the end of her overwhelmingly dark and dreary take that doesn’t offer much in the way of sweeping romance.Just what people go to Jane Austen for — depression!That’s a valid enough angle, I suppose.The Dashwood girls are hurt more often than they are happy.

Men take and take and take from them.The family at the story’s center is booted from their cherished home and is forced to pack into a cramped cottage.

Not quite the fancy-free paradise of their vast Norland estate, which they get evicted from after the patriarch kicks the bucket.Without the expected Austenian ravishment, though, and drained of color like a Soviet prison, “Sense and Sensibility” becomes a drag.Oakley’s off-putting, dour version couldn’t be more different than Ang Lee’s sublime 1995 adaptation starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman that’s still considered one of the best Austen films ever.

That movie included the same painful dramas and no-good dudes, only with a through-line of lightness, optimism and pleasant perseverance.Most importantly, we cared about the people in it.Yet here there is no relationship here worth getting invested in.The always excellent Daisy Edgar-Jones is best as the uber-serious Elinor, the eldest daughter who falls for dashing Edward Ferrars (George MacKay) because of his gentle nature and his dream of a simple life in the country.

But these actors barely crack a smile, which is something I hear one generally does when in love.Edgar-Jones is well-known for the miniseries “Normal People,” about a pair of anguished and oft-naked Irish lovers, and she and...