Structurally, the film's off-kilter. The start of the relationship is rushed through, while the supposedly crucial notice period feels increasingly directionless. Which leaves the comic strand - and that, by and large, delivers.
Much of the reason for the film's success is down to the pairing of Grant and Bullock, and it's easy to see how the film could have been a leaden disaster in the hands of blander actors.
Though there's nothing in the film to equal the excitement of seeing a marquee collapse from the weight of its title, an attractive cast and setting turn a tired one-joke premise into an adequate view.
Thompson's script manages the neat trick of preserving the necessary niceties and decorum of civilized behavior of the time while still cutting to the dramatic quick.
Sense and Sensibility by the BBC is a good rendition of the new Film from US. I liked it's similarities, and without big stars, you really take more heed in the story than in costuming and acting. It becomes more of a story. The US version is very good also, but the BBC version is more explanatory.