Latest 'Sense and Sensibility' is captivating addition to canon

Charity Wakefield is Marianne and Dominic Cooper is Mr. Willoughby in "Sense and Sensibility," tommorow on PBS.

The gnawing question that plagues the remake of any good film - why bother? - doesn't much apply to Jane Austen. Her work, like that of any seminal writer (cough - Shakespeare - cough) can and should be made and remade for every generation. It should be reimagined for a variety of mindsets - cynical, superficial, innocent, hopeful. As we define Austen, so, to some extent, do we define our time and ourselves.

Tomorrow, PBS's "Master piece" is premiering the last installment of its Austen series, a two-part "Sense and Sensibility" written by Andrew Davies. It's a fine adaptation of the tale of two sisters, which was made in 1995 with much pastoral warmth by Ang Lee and Emma Thompson. So far, PBS has delivered a disappointing string of new Austen product, diffuse films that speed over the author's most resonant emotional bumps. But this fully realized miniseries, airing at 9 p.m. on Channel 2, has enough focus and time to dig into the themes of romance, repression, money, and, this being Austen, misperception.

This "Sense and Sensibility" is less comic and idealized than Lee's - the world of the Dashwood women is closer to the hardships of the time. The hues of the production are less vivid and happy. When Mr. Dashwood dies in the opening scenes, his estate passes to his only son, John, and John's grabby wife, Fanny. That leaves Dashwood's second wife (played with formidable sympathy by Janet McTeer) and her three daughters on fragile financial ground, and they move to a decidedly unglamorous cottage by the sea. The cottage is cramped, the sea is restless.

Before the move, mild-mannered oldest sister Elinor (Hattie Morahan) and Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens) fall in love in their restrained way. He resists the attachment for reasons that emerge gradually. After the move, passionate middle sister Marianne (Charity Wakefield) is courted by two men. Colonel Brandon (David Morrissey) is older, modest, circumspect, gentlemanly. Mr. Willoughby (Dominic Cooper) is dashing, irresponsible, and, the miniseries makes clear in one early impressionistic scene, more sexually alluring. Naturally, Marianne throws caution to the wind and goes for Willoughby, with disastrous results.

The 1995 film adopted a generally wry tone toward Elinor and Marianne and their temperamental excesses. Elinor and Edward, who was played with a tinge of klutziness by Hugh Grant, were amusingly awkward together, while Marianne's emotionality was a little ridiculous. Davies takes the sisters' situation more seriously. Their happy fates are not a fait accompli, as each loses her lover and is left wounded and alone. This is not to say there is no humor afoot - the cottage owners, a distant cousin and his family, are eccentric comic relief. But the humiliations that Elinor and Marianne encounter - many of them rooted in the sexism of the time - are not undersold.

At first, the casting of the leads seems inadequate. The actresses playing Elinor and Marianne come off as generic, and they are far outshined by McTeer's likable supporting turn. But both grow in distinction as the story progresses and as their characters find and lose love. Morahan reveals Elinor's depth of feeling slowly, so that by the time she finally expresses herself openly - "I may not have shown it, Marianne, but let me assure you I have been very unhappy" - the moment has weight. Her early understatement pays off. And Wakefield musters all the needed recklessness and remorse.

I don't think this "Sense and Sensibility" will become an all-time classic Austen, like the Colin Firth version of "Pride and Prejudice" or the 1995 "Persuasion" with Ciarán Hinds. It never quite dazzles, even as it impresses, and it misses some of Austen's ironic turns. But this is certainly a worthy adaptation, summoning all that is enduring about Austen.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog/.