Sense and Sensibility 1995 Based on the Jane Austen novel. Directed by Ang Lee. Adapted by Emma Thompson. Elinor, Marianne, Margaret Dashwood (Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Emilie Francoise), and their mother (Gemma Jones), face destitution when Mr. Dashwood dies. Though his last wish was that his son, John (James Fleet), from a first marriage, take care of the women, John’s wife, Fanny (Harriet Walter), has other ideas. Visiting, Fanny’s brother, Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), is attracted to Elinor, but Fanny warns her he must marry money or be disinherited.

Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters move in to a house on her cousin’s estate and are frequent guests at main house, Barton Park. There they meet the older Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), who falls in love with Marianne at first sight. One afternoon, the young woman falls in the rain and is rescued by handsome Mr. Willoughby (Greg Wise who would later marry Emma Thompson) with whom she’s immediately smitten.

Brandon turns out to be selfless and indispensable, Willoughby, whether by weakness or choice, unavailable, Ferrars a man with backbone. Lots of miscommunication and class issues arise between. Beautifully done. They all look so young! Rent on Amazon Prime.

Titanic 1997 Directed by James Cameron. Something of an epic and actually worth seeing. The sinking of the Titanic and a great romance told in flashback by survivor Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart), then 17 year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet). Rose is accompanied on the voyage by her widowed mother Ruth (Frances Fisher), who has maneuvered her daughter into a prestigious marriage to Cal Hockley (Billy Zane), whom the girl doesn’t love. The young woman meets itinerant artist Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) when he wanders up from steerage and rescues her. They’re soulmates. Everyone tries to keep them apart to no avail.

Many real characters are depicted. Also with Kathy Bates, David Warner, Bill Paxton, Victor Garber, Suzi Amis, Danny Nucci. Terrific cinematography and special effects, but the characters make the film. Eleven Academy Awards. Rent on Amazon Prime.        

Finding Neverland 2004 Based on the 1998 play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Alan Knee. Directed by Marc Foster. In 1903, Scottish writer J.M. Barrie (understated Johnny Depp) meets widowed Sylvia Llewlyn Davis (Kate Winslet) and her sons (George, Jack, Peter and Michael) in Kensington Gardens. He’s drawn to the freewheeling family, spending more and more time with them, much to the increasing chagrin of staid wife, Mary (Radha Mitchell), and Sylvia’s mother, Mrs. Emma du Maurier (Julie Christie.)

The boys need a father, Barrie needs to be needed. He’s inspired, especially by Peter Llewlyn Davies (Freddie Highmore – terrific) to write Peter Pan, a play that theater impresario George Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) disdains. (Depiction of the play as it looked then is marvelous.)

The play, of course, is an immense success. Tragedy strikes the Llewlyn Davies. Barrie gives Sylvia a rare gift. An entirely  lovely film. The two protagonists did, in fact, have a loving, ostensibly platonic relationship. Four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Revolutionary Road 2008 Adapted from the novel by Richard Yates. Directed by Sam Mendes. The dissolution of a marriage never on firm foundations. Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) meet, marry, and move to Connecticut. He takes a sales job, but hates it. She gives up dreams of being an actress. Their friends, Helen and Howard Givings (Kathy Bates and Richard Easton), and Milly and Shep Campbell (Kathryn Hahn and David Harbour), think they’re the perfect couple.

Frank has an affair. The couple plans to move in hopes of a new start but practicalities – including April’s unwanted (by her) – pregnancy prevent. April has an affair. Things go from bad to worse. Winslet sent the script to friend Leonardo DiCaprio, and persuaded him to take the part of Frank. To prepare for the role, she read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. DiCaprio prepared for the role by watching several documentaries about the 1950s. Well acted, but slow and depressing. Free with HBO Trial.

A Little Chaos 2014 Directed by and featuring Alan Rickman. When landscape architect André Le Nôtre (Matthias Schoenaerts) is assigned the vast gardens of Versailles, he interviews designers. Among those who applies is a solitary woman, widow Sabine De Barra (Kate Winslet). At first put off by her non-traditional ideas, Le Notre then visits her at home and enchanted by an extraordinary backyard garden, changes his mind. He hires her.

Everything and everyone is against Sabine, both professionally and because she’s a woman. Extensive sabotage must be dealt with. As she creates an extraordinary space, she and Le Notre grow close.

Also featuring Stanley Tucci as Duke Philipe, Duc D’Orleans, Helene McRory and Madame Le Notre, Jennifer Ehle as Madame De Montespan, and Phyllida Law. Winslet’s character is fictional, but research is elsewhere obvious. Construction of Versailles and its gardens are fun to see. The story is sympathetic and solid. Rickman is splendid as Louis IV. This was his last film. Rent on Amazon Prime.

The Dressmaker 2015 Based on the novel by Rosalie Ham. A black comedy revenge piece. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. Twenty five years after being exiled from her town, falsely accused of the death of a schoolmate, Myrtle Dunnage who now calls herself Tilly (Kate Winslet), returns to the Outback’s Dungatar, Australia. She’s become a stylish, successful dressmaker. Perhaps because of early onset dementia, her mother Molly (Judy Davis), remembers nothing about the event. As townswomen see the effect of Tilly’s dresses, they begin to hire her. Meanwhile, she quietly investigates the truth of the crime.

Tilly discovers that powerful people wanted secrets hidden and how the town colluded to blame her. Revenge is extreme and no doubt satisfying. Well done on all fronts. Also with Liam Helmsworth. Free with Amazon Prime.

Ammonite 2020 Loosely inspired by the life of British paleontologist Mary Anning. Directed by Francis Lee. A bleak, well directed film based on the speculative romance of Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan). Mary and her widowed mother (Gemma Jones) live hand to mouth by the seaside in Leeds, England. When she was 11, Mary found a valuable fossil purchased by The British Museum which set her path for life. She scours the shore, retrieves, cleans, and notates pieces sometimes sold to tourists, sometimes to collectors. A small reputation accrues.

Charlotte is brought to the sea for her health by controlling husband and amateur paleontologist Roderick (James McArdle) who squashes the life out of her. He pays Mary to take his sullen, depressed wife on their walks while he travels. When Charlotte  unexpectedly gets ill,  Mary nurses her. The women grow closer. Having found something both were lacking they open up. Roderick returns and wants his wife home in London. Charlotte has a plan, but to Mary…

Acting is very fine as is cinematography. There’s a hole in the plot one suspects is poor editing with the appearance of Elizabeth Philpot (Fiona Shaw) who comes out of Mary’s past but is never explained. Physical relations are subtly handled. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Iris 2001 in which Winslet plays the young Iris Murdoch can be found in Stream Films About Notable Authors X       

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