Rene Rawls on Sense and Sensibility, Waiting to Exhale
Sense and Sensibility, Waiting to Exhale, The Secret of NIMH, and Graveyard of the Fireflies are movies telling different story in different eras, yet they each are adaptations that center around love.
Based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility deals with two of the three Dashwood sisters as they experience the ups-and-downs of love and romance in England during the late 1700s. Emma Thompson penned the adaptation and also stars as the oldest sister, Elinor, who conceals her feelings while the free-spirited Marianne is played by Kate Winslet. Each major story beat challenges how they experience love and ultimately, Marianne becomes a bit more reserved while Elinor finally releases her bottled up emotions.
Releasing by “exhaling” is what the four women in the movie Waiting to Exhale want. Each of them desperately yearns for a committed relationship with a man and although the characters in Sense and Sensibility desire the same, the women are different. Sense and Sensibility stars two white women whose characters were governed by the unspoken rules of the times. Waiting to Exhale features black women: Savannah (Whitney Houston), Robin (Lela Rochon), Bernadine (Angela Bassett), and Gloria (Loretta Devine) who blame the external factors (the men) for not having love, but they eventually come to realize that dealing with and accepting their own issues leads to them exhaling, even if it is without a mate. Although the movie is now celebrating its 25th anniversary (as is Sense and Sensibility), when it was released in 1995, it was considered a contemporary film that was adapted from the Terry McMillan novel of the same name, and she also co-wrote the screenplay with Ron Bass.
The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 animated film that tells the story of a group of rats who have become intelligent after being “tested on” by humans. Once they have this new ability, there is conflict between those who want to stay and continue being “rats” by using the famer’s electricity and those who want to move to another location. At the heart of the film, however, is a mother mouse (Mrs. Frisby) who is determined to keep her son alive after he comes down with pneumonia. It is a mother’s love for her son that anchors this story, which is a dark fantasy adventure film. It is based on Robert C. O’Brien 1971 children’s novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health).
Also about love is Graveyard of the Fireflies, which shows a brother’s love for his younger sister, and although this film is animated and stars two children, it is a war drama that depicts war’s impact on the everyday people, especially children. This story by Akiyuki Nosaka was adapted by screenwriter/director Isao Takahata from Nosaka’s 967 short story of the same name. It is semi-autobiographical and was released in 1988. The plot centers around a boy and his sister who struggle to survive as orphans after their mother is killed during a WWII air-raid and their father is killed fighting during the war. Despite the brother’s best efforts, the little girl dies of malnutrition and the boy ultimate dies as well. When they are reunited on “the other side,” it shows that love even transcends death.