John Willoughby

Sense and Sensibility is the latest adaptation of a Jane Austen novel.

The main cast stars Daisy Edgar Jones as Eleanor Dashwood, Esme Creed Miles as her sister Marianne, Catriona Balfe as Mrs. Dashwood, the mother, Frank Delane as John Willoughby, Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon, George Mackay as Edward Ferris, Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Jennings, Bodhi Ray Brethak as Margaret Dashwood, Stacey Martin as Fanny Dashwood, Tom Brook as John Dashwood, and Terloy Convery.

Now, I don't think there's any people of colour in that line-up.

Is there, Clarice?

Um, but there's a really lovely connection there, and it's really nice sort of seeing that relationship go.

And then when they go to their new place in the country, Marianne meets the very charming John Willoughby, played by Frank Dillane.

There's a lot of characters in this.

Lot of characters.

When Elinor Dashwood's father dies, Elinor played by Emma Thompson, her family's finances are crippled.

After the Dashwoods move into a cottage in Devonshire, Elinor's sister, Marianne, played by Kate Winslet, is torn between the handsome John Willoughby, played by Greg Wise, and the older Colonel Brandon, played by Alan Rickman.

Meanwhile, Elinor's romantic hopes with Edward Ferrars, played by Hugh Grant, are hindered due to his prior engagement.

Both Elinor and Marianne strive to love while the circumstances of their lives constantly change.

But again, dealing with fantastic cast, we're looking at beautiful cinematography, such vast open spaces shot beautifully, but even small condensed rooms feeling tight and cozy, and then epic visuals in like a giant ballroom with hundreds of people of just a visual smorgasbord for the eyes at every moment.

While Marianne and her younger sister are out in a walk and get stuck in a bad rainstorm, Marianne ends up injuring herself.

And to the rescue is John Willoughby, again, who is played by Greg Wise, carries the injured Marianne home after her injury on September 20th, 1797, which is about 36 minutes into this two-hour and 16-minute movie.

And when it came to the Academy Awards for that particular season, it actually ended up winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and got nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress for Emma Thompson, Best Supporting Actress for Kate Winslet, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score.

In Sense and Sensibility, Eleanor Dashwood's father dies and her family's finances are crippled.

And after the Dashwoods move to a cottage in Devonshire, Eleanor's sister, Marianne, is torn between the handsome John Willoughby family.

and the older Colonel Brandon.

Meanwhile, Eleanor's romantic hopes with Edward Ferris are hindered due to his prior engagement.

What is it you suspect him of?

Willoughby!

From Jane Austen's timeless classic

There's some blue sky! Let us chase it!

i've i've come in with some hot takes

what

are you i never do the hot takes so i'm like okay that Willoughby is the original love bomber.

What does that mean? What is a love bomber?

And how do you live with that? relying on men which is often which is really the position the Dashwood women find themselves in very quickly and it's very unfortunate for them that their half-brother is not going to look out for them is a real problem because as you say you know the men in this novel um all have secrets.

The three romantic interests in this novel, Edward Ferrars, Colonel Brandon and Willoughby, all carry secrets.

So another kind of vulnerability that these women face is they're forced to enter into relationships with men who they know very little about.

who we will find out with the heroine some quite disturbing things about.

And in some cases, some of this behaviour is really, really rather predatory.

Willoughby is a kind of archetypal rake, leaving a stream of women in his path with very little regard for them.

And, you know, he has an unhappy marriage, boo-hoo, but earns quite a... know considerable fortunes through through a marriage which he says he doesn't want but nevertheless in in some ways you know he's all right jack but yes i think there's i think there is a lot of darkness in in jane austen's novels i think um certainly the one of the stories which i think we can quite easily gloss over or forget about quite hard i think in terms of adaptation to think about how to incorporate this narrative and into into any kind of tv or film version of the novel is this embedded story we find in it of these two Elizas, the sister-in-law of Colonel Brandon, who he really loved, who marries his brother, who has a very unfortunate marriage, ends up divorcing Colonel Brandon's brother, ends up having an illegitimate daughter, who then Colonel Brandon is responsible for, and then who Willoughby will go on to seduce, and who then have an illegitimate daughter, It's then kind of jettisoned from the novel.

It's really kind of peculiar.

This is big deal, guys.

Colonel Brandon comes in and spills the tea on Willoughby that he sucks even worse than you thought, which, I mean, we've been doing spoilers the entire way, so you probably know at this point anyway.

Willoughby seduced Colonel Brandon's foster daughter and then left her pregnant, and that's why he got kicked out of Elnham.

Yeah, it doesn't say that's why he got kicked out of Ellenham in this chapter, but we're connecting the dots.

We start off the chapter with Marianne and she's like, I hate Mrs. Jennings.

And it does refer to her impetuous feelings when Ellen is talking her through it.

And it's so funny, you can almost hear the conversation, her varying opinions.

Willoughby's unfortunate and innocent, then...

He's quite dramatic.

However, I will say we're getting a jumping head a little bit, but Willoughby, he was kind of all those things.

Of course, we know.

He was

He does.

I mean, he's kind of like his Notting Hill character a bit in this.

But then we've also seen Hugh Grant play like in Bridget Jones' Diary, like the more the Wickham type character, the Wickham Willoughby type.

Yes.

Yeah, and I think it makes Marianne's ending and Sense and Sensibility interesting.

seem a lot happier than I think modern readers are like, Oh, but Willoughby, he was so dashing and they really were better matched.

And she gets this old man who has arthritis and like, is that really a happy ending for Marianne? It's like, well, the alternative was death.

So yeah, actually she, she ends up pretty good.

Not only that, but Willoughby like Wickham seems beautiful and dashing and romantic, but Yes, he's obviously a very handsome man, but he's none of those things.

He's a man who married for money and comfort and who was only, what's the term, mirroring Marianne?

Yeah, her behavior.

That's interesting.