Movie Monday August 1: Persuasion

This week I decided to watch Netflix’s Jane Austen Adaptation Persuasion. It’s gotten some critique since its release, and not all of it good, but I wanted to give it a watch and decide for myself.

**Warning, mild spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched the movie yet, what are you doing?**

Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson) was once engaged to Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), but since he didn’t have a penny to his name nor a title to inherit, she was persuaded by her friends and relatives, including Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird) ‘give him up’. Eight years have passed and Anne is still deeply in love with him. When her father Sir Walter’s (Richard E. Grant) frivolous spending threatens to bankrupt them, they rent out their house and Anne starts on a journey of self discovery across England. She spends time with her sister Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and her in-laws the Musgroves. There, she encounters Frederick again, now a captain and fairly wealthy. They all travel to Lyme to meet some of Frederick’s friends. Louisa Musgrove (Nia Towle) becomes infatuated with Frederick and confides in Anne about her feelings. Anne, still heartbroken but trying to be friendly, distances herself from them. She eventually crosses paths with Mr. William Elliot (Henry Golding), her father’s distant cousin and heir, who had a falling out with the family after he refused to marry her sister Elizabeth (Yolanda Kettle). Initially infatuated with him, Anne still distrusts his charming manner and forthrightness. Louisa is injured while out walking with Frederick and the traveling party disbands. Ann travels next to Bath to stay with her father and Elizabeth. There she sees William spending time with her family, flattering them all. He makes his intentions clear to Anne that he wants to prevent her father from remarrying, therefore threatening his inheritance, but that he is also starting to fall for her. She flirts with the idea of him after hearing that Louisa is engaged to ‘her captain’ and assumes everyone means Frederick. When he shows up in Bath, Anne still struggles with her lingering feelings and heartbreak. Their paths never quite line up, whether it’s misinformation or ill timing, but one heartfelt letter could change everything for both Anne and Frederick.

The summary for this one was so long, but I feel like that’s because Jane Austen’s plots involve many different characters and multiple storylines. The issue that some adaptations can face is when to cut something and when to simplify it. For Persuasion, sometimes it felt like the story was too modernized to be set in Austen’s world. In the era of Bridgerton and other similarly modern Regency-era stories, sometimes modernization can work. For something written in the period, it’s almost flippant with its fourth-wall breaks and disguised modern references. I can see some of the influences from previous Austen adaptations, from Emma (2020) to Mansfield Park (1999). The dialogue is also anachronistic at times and some conversations seem like they were pulled straight from 2022.

I haven’t read Persuasion yet, but I do know that some of the biggest changes came from the William Elliot story line. The movie makes him less sleazy and gives him an almost happy ending. He’s a lot more ruthless in the book, bankrupting the husband of a friend of Anne’s, and has open disdain for Elizabeth and Sir Walter that then becomes smoozy charm. I think Henry Golding did a fine job, but what he was given to work with makes the character seem a lot more one dimensional.

I think the actors were great, especially the smaller roles like Mary, Sir Walter, Lady Russell, and Captain Benwick (Afolabi Alli). Dakota Johnson was decent, but again, the writing and direction made a lot of her fourth-wall breaks almost disingenuous. If it had been scaled back a bit, those breaks could’ve been more effective instead of increasingly annoying. Cosmo Jarvis was also a bit stiff at times, but moments of great emotion at the end were really well acted and genuine. That could’ve been a character choice, to make Frederick uncomfortable most of the time, but I’m not convinced. There were also moments in the movie that I’d describe as cringey that were different in the book. Most of these were used to make Anne or a certain situation awkward. It was a little jarring at times and didn’t add much to the story.

Some critics of the film, like critics of a lot of Austen adaptations, think that the book and movie should tell the exact same story. If all the characters and storylines aren’t told how the book does it, the movie isn’t a successful adaptation to them. I disagree with that sentiment on two principles, that film and literature are two very different mediums and that screenwriters and directors are allowed to take some liberties when adapting a story. I think the director Carrie Cracknell did a good job with what she was given and that the writers Ronal Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow made choices and stuck with them. As a fellow writer, I commend them for doing that. As a movie and Austen lover, I wish at times they didn’t mess with the central theme so much. Persuasion the book is about how society puts pressure on and persuades people to act a certain way, sometimes sacrificing love and happiness for position and security, and how that’s not always right. Persuasion the movie boils down a fairly complex plot into a straight up love story.

Overall, Persuasion was a fine adaptation. I like the concept of the story and am interested in reading the book, so that’s something good I got out of the film. I wouldn’t necessarily watch it again, like how I rewatch Pride and Prejudice (2005), but I would see it again if someone else wanted to. 

One moment that made me laugh: Whenever Anne plays with her nephews. They had a great relationship in the film and really helped show Anne as a loving and caring person. Also those two boys were so stinking cute and good child actors.

One moment that made me cry: This wasn’t like a full on cry-fest moment, but I did get a little teary when Anne overhears Frederick talking to Louisa about her. His bitterness and anger towards her really hit me, and I give all the credit towards Dakota Johnson. It wasn’t overacted or purely comical, but very real.

I’d give Persuasion 6 bottles of fine wine out of 10.