[Middle English, meaning, from Old French sens, from Latin se`nsus, the faculty of perceiving, from past participle of sent re, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

This is the story of two sisters Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet) who are left without property and who are made nearly penniless by the death of their father. Their older half- brother inherits everything. The movie opens with him and his greedy evil wife swooping into the family home where our ladies live.

Elinor is the older and more sensible of the two grown sisters. She is grounded in practicality and is the last one you would expect to suddenly start getting goofy over any guy. Then in walks Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) who is the brother of the greedy evil wife. He becomes the object of Elinor’s affections.
Um…this is to say that she "greatly esteems him very early on", the little hussy!
Greedy evil wife catches on to this and separates the two as quickly as she can.

Marianne catches the eye of Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) who caught my attention with his sad-eyed hotness. I mean...really. Of course silly-silly Marianne does not return his soulful-yearning stares. She does fall for a guy who seems more complex and interesting to her named John Wiloughby (Greg Wise), whom she meets one day while out walking. In the movie he rides up on his charger and rescues her after a near fatal sprain to her ankle.

Hugh Laurie plays the ever so delightfully snotty and dismissive Mr. Palmer. He is not shown a great deal in this movie but when he is you see him. He plays a very cranky kind of a guy who is most unhappily saddled with a prattling wife and a household full of women. He constantly looks as if he is going to roll up his newspaper and whack the snot out of somebody. He just works in this role…nicely. Pay attention to his eyes as you watch this movie because they do a lot of the speaking.

Hugh Grant does a great job with his upper class British version of the “Aww… shucks ma’am” thing which he manages to squeeze into every role. He is a charming guy to watch. Kate Winslet did a very nice job too. She made the character of Marianne likable and far more interesting then I remembered her to be.

Jane Austen’s story paints a lovely picture and takes you along for a gorgeous ride. Emma Thompson is quietly brilliant. How does she do that? She sneaks up on you and steals the movie. She did a wonderful job with the screenplay too. The beauty and essence of the original works are honored in this film.

Cyndi’s pick for Most Rewindable Scene: Cranky Over Crumpled Paper and Carrying Marianne to Her Bedroom.”

Both provide a lovely little vision