‘Sense and Sensibility’

“Sense and Sensibility,” directed by Ang Lee and starring Emma Thompson (left, pictured with Kate Winslet), who also wrote the script, is proof to any doubters of the resilience and continuing emotional power of an author who began writing 200 years ago. The death of family patriarch Henry Dashwood sets the plot in motion. The law forces him to leave the family estate of Norland to John, his son from a previous marriage. And John’s grasping wife, Fanny ensures that that means trouble to Mrs. Dashwood, the dead man’s second wife, and the three daughters he left behind (HBO Saturday at 6:30 p.m.).