Persuasion (2022)

Not Austen's Anne - Persuasion review by SB

Before watching this film I saw a good deal of comment, critical and Austenite, about it. Most was negative. However I decided to try and watch it with an open mind. Afterwards, my thoughts are as follows:

Positive

The film looks good. The production design and cinematography are consistent and beautiful. One scene was like a Caspar David Friedrich painting. The settings are in fact probably too opulent for the social classes involved (especially the Musgroves) but that is not a huge fault. I am not comptent to judge the accuracy of the costuming but it was effective as part of the overall mise-en-scene, albeit with one serious flaw (see below).

Some of the performances are good: Henry Golding as Mr Elliott, and Mia McKenna-Bruce as Mary Musgrove especially. Richard E Grant plays himself to some effect as Sir Walter. Nia Towle captures Louisa's effervescence well.

There are individual effective moments: Louisa's jump is done much better than in previous adaptations, and makes us believe she is really injured.

The colour blind casting works well and is applied consistently. It is a pity that many commentators seem to not understand, perhaps wilfully, what the purposes and principles of colour-blind casting are, and condemn the results as anachronistic or tokenistic. They are not.

Negative

The script seriously misrepresents the character of Anne. She is far too sharp, mutinous and dominant. She is an alcoholic, and rude. As a mistaken version of an Austen character it is even worse than the 1999 and 2007 versions of Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. Her self doubt is mostly represented by laying on a bed crying or talking to her rabbit. The script also topedoes the strained relationship between Anne and Wentworth when he returns. This should be mostly agonised silence on both sides. In this version they have far too much to say to each other. The wholly inserted conversation on the beach is horrible to watch and listen to, it is so wrong. The letter scene is seriously mishandled. The script and the relationship between Anne and Wentworth form the central failing of the film.

Dakota Johnson plays the part well, even if it is not Austen's Anne in any real sense. But her appearance makes no real transition from downtrodden mouse to second bloom. Her beauty dominates every scene from start to finish and the costuming and hair styling simply intensify this. This is a great pity because a different approach to costume, make-up etc could have yielded a stunning transformation.

Wentworth comes across as a gormless git. This is partly the script, but also, Cosmo Jarvis' performance is totally inadequate and lacks all chemistry with Johnson. Anne's assertion that he should try to become an admiral sounds especially ludicrous. It is very hard indeed to see why Anne wants to marry him when Mr Elliott is available.

Mrs Clay's character, which here is represented as a crude voluptuary, should be much more refined. It is not believable that she represents a danger to Mr Elliott's dynastic ambitions. And the scene where he is snogging her in the street is ridiculous.

Neutral

There has been a lot of comment on the breaking of the fourth wall by Anne. This is not a first (the 1999 Mansfield Park and 2007 Persuasion both did it, though to a much smaller extent). In this film it works on its own terms; the question is whether the character thus revealed is the right one for the novel. It isn't, and so the problems of the script are reinforced.

Amusing New take - Persuasion review by GI

Critics have described this modernised adaptation of Jane Austen's famous novel as 'misguided' but I simply found myself enjoying it more and more. I wonder sometimes if there's a slight snobbery applied whenever there's an attempt to take a hallowed text and do something different with it. Here, influenced no doubt by the TV series Bridgerton, the story is given a 'Fleabag' treatment and the language altered to provide a period romcom that made me laugh and feel moved throughout. The main reason is the excellent performance by Dakota Johnson, an actor who is consistently proving to be one of the finest around today, her asides to the camera, her sly nods and glances at the viewer and the passion with which she brings the emotional pain of her character makes this film. She plays Ann Elliot, a lovelorn woman, who was persuaded to turn down a proposal from Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), a penniless sailor years before. She is hopelessly in love still so when he shows up, now wealthy and respectable, she is torn between her feelings and social restrictions especially as her family have fallen on hard times due to her selfish father (Richard E. Grant). There's plenty of laughs and Mia McKenna-Bruce as her narcissistic sister Mary is hilarious and also the film is romantic and moving. Don't listen to naysayers this is a treat.