Persuasion (2022)

[BlackberryJam]

Well, this looks like something I definitely do not want to watch. 

[DesiJF]

Good Lord!  What the hell is that?  I love me some Jane Austen, but that's a hard pass on that one.

[Trini]

Um - if they were going to change/modernize the dialogue (and probably other things) so much, why didn't just do a contemporary/modern-day version of the story?? I would have loved that. I feel like all the anachronisms will be too distracting and/or annoying while watching.

I was looking forward to this since it's the one Austen book I've managed to read all the way through; but now....

[Athena]

This feels like Bridget Jones but not in a good way.

I am a big Austen fan as well and I think the Amanda Root/Cirian Hinds Persuasion (1995) is one of the best Austen adaptations. Even the Sally Hawkins one in the late aughts was quite good. This looks a tad... messy. Anne as a character in the novels not as quirky or as spunky as this trailer makes it out to be. She can't exactly afford to be this way either like Emma or even Elizabeth Darcy.

[Trini]

33 minutes ago, Athena said:

I am a big Austen fan as well and I think the Amanda Root/Cirian Hinds Persuasion (1995) is one of the best Austen adaptations. Even the Sally Hawkins one in the late aughts was quite good.

I haven't seen that 1995 version - I'll have to try and check that one out. As for the Sally Hawkins version; the main thing I remember from that one is that they fumbled the the climax.

[ETA:]

33 minutes ago, Athena said:

This looks a tad... messy. Anne as a character in the novels not as quirky or as spunky as this trailer makes it out to be. She can't exactly afford to be this way either like Emma or even Elizabeth Darcy.

Austen is the template for rom-coms, but I don't think bringing 21st century rom-com sensibilities to the Austen era works. At least not here, from what little was shown in the trailer.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Trini

[DkNNy79]

I enjoyed the 1995 version but love the Sally Hawkins version even with the awkward running/kiss climax.  Rupert Penry-Jones is my favorite Wentworth 😍

I love all things Jane Austen and Persuasion battles Pride & Prejudice as my favorite but this looks awful.  It does not make me want to see it at all.

[emmawoodhouse]

Oh dear. What a mockery they've made of my favorite Austen novel. It may even be beyond snark. 

[katha]

Sigh. I'm so tired of this. These female characters don't need to be "modernized", JA knew what she was doing. They were strong and interesting, but also introverted and quiet. Imagine that. Not every Austen heroine needs to be turned into a spunky, quippy stereotype. Austen wrote Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse, if she wanted such a type, she'd have managed no problem. It's the same with Fanny Price. She's quiet and scared and traumatized. That't the point. That's what makes her act of defiance meaningful. Or Wentworth's whole realization that Anne is strong and impressive even though she is not loud about it. Like, that's a major revelation for him in the book. All the points missed. If you want to actually throw out all the characterization and essence of Austen, then just write your own story and don't adapt Austen.

[Ohiopirate02]

I was never excited about this adaptation of my favorite Austen novel, but this trailer.

I am sick of period pieces where the characters speak in 21st century language and wear 21st century hairstyles.  Why is Anne's hair down in so many scenes??? Why does Anne call Wentworth her ex???  This hashtag relatable shit has got to go.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Ohiopirate02

[Trini]

I'm actually completely fine with a modern take on the story and characters. Doing a modern take but still having it set in the 1830s? Dumb. Like, why??

[EtheltoTillie]

That trailer was just too long--I really started drifting off.  I don't know if I will watch this.

[proserpina65]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:57 PM, DkNNy79 said:

I enjoyed the 1995 version but love the Sally Hawkins version even with the awkward running/kiss climax.  Rupert Penry-Jones is my favorite Wentworth 

He's my least favorite, primarily because he looks like he'd never spent five minutes on the deck of a ship, let alone years.  But he's still better than the guy they've cast in this mess.

Edited to note: I like Rupert Penry-Jones as an actor but I know too much about the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars to buy him as Wentworth.

Edited June 16, 2022 by proserpina65

[proserpina65]

On 6/14/2022 at 6:21 PM, DesiJF said:

Good Lord!  What the hell is that?  I love me some Jane Austen, but that's a hard pass on that one.

It's a Jane Austen adaptation by someone who does not understand in the least what makes Jane Austen's novels work.  It looks worse than the Emma was a year or so ago, and that was quite bad.

[twoods]

Damn it, now I’m going to have to watch the Rupert Penry Jones version this weekend (again) to cleanse my brain after watching that trailer. Sadly since I’m usually a sucker for anything Jane Austin, I will still be watching it in July. Maybe it will surprise me, but I couldn’t even get through 1/4 of the new Emma and it looks similar. Or I could just stare at Henry Golding.

Edited June 18, 2022 by twoods

[Scarlett45]

On 6/15/2022 at 1:01 PM, Ohiopirate02 said:

I was never excited about this adaptation of my favorite Austen novel, but this trailer.

I am sick of period pieces where the characters speak in 21st century language and wear 21st century hairstyles.  Why is Anne's hair down in so many scenes??? Why does Anne call Wentworth her ex???  This hashtag relatable shit has got to go.

On 6/15/2022 at 3:55 PM, Trini said:

I'm actually completely fine with a modern take on the story and characters. Doing a modern take but still having it set in the 1830s? Dumb. Like, why??

Ditto. 

[krankydoodle]

I share the skepticism for this adaptation, but I love the casting of Richard E. Grant as Sir Walter Elliot. I'll probably give it a shot just for him.

[pancake bacon]

On 6/15/2022 at 6:44 AM, Trini said:

I haven't seen that 1995 version - I'll have to try and check that one out.

Accept no substitutions – the journey of Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliott from seemingly ordinary and forgotten (especially Anne) to heartbreakingly beautiful was beyond physical. It seemed that Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root used their emotions and pathos as tools for a glow-up. The 1995 adaptation really brought forward poignancy of Austen and time passing her by, and but knows she and other women to "loving longest when all hope is gone."

[MisterGlass]

Add me to the list who needs to look up this 1995 edition.  And I agree that this looks like Emma or Elizabeth Bennett transplanted into Persuasion.  I think period Austen can be made with a modern edge - the Keira Knightley "Pride & Prejudice" was fine, and I very much like the Romola Garai "Emma" miniseries - but this looks awfully smug for "Persuasion."  The book is as much suspenseful as it is romantic, and really the only comical bit about "Persuasion" is Sir Walter's utter vanity.

That said, it is a book in the public domain, and people can make of it what they will.  Maybe someone else will come along with another take in a few years.  Though of course that makes me wonder what other freely available classics Netflix is about to seize on.

[proserpina65]

On 7/10/2022 at 8:58 PM, MisterGlass said:

That said, it is a book in the public domain, and people can make of it what they will. 

People can make of it what they will, and we can criticize the hell out of it when they fuck it up this badly.

[Hiyo]

Turning Persuasion into Jane Austen’s Fleabag was a truly terrible idea.

[twoods]

I went in with such low expectations, but found myself not hating it that much? It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful as well and I finished all of it. All of the side characters (the Crofts, Mary’s husband and his sisters) were delightful, and I liked Dakota as Anne. 

[Trini]

2 hours ago, twoods said:

It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful

This seems to be the gist of the reviews I've come across.

[Salacious Kitty]

I've seen worse Austen adaptations. I wasn't a fan of Anne's asides, swilling wine from the bottle, drinking hard liquor, or her hangover. 

[twoods]

I’m just happy this ending didn’t have the ridiculousness of Anne running through Bath for five minutes (I always get so dizzy) and that awful kiss with her pursing her lips for 15 seconds before they kiss like the last version. What a way to ruin a pretty good movie. 

[Beatriceblake]

I hated it. I think a lot of the characters are relatively flat in the novel but here they were completely one note. I could have overlooked the odd piece of anachronistic dialogue or on the nose piece of exposition (a problem in a lot of adaptations of books because the screenwriters think we are thick) but what sent me over the edge was the bits where Jane Austen had already solved that problem for them. Case in point: Wentworth finds out from Louisa that Charles asked Anne to marry him first. So in your film you can have Henrietta and Louisa being attentive to Anne and Charles and she seeming respectful but distant and then bam Wentworth finds out Anne turned Charles down (thus proving she wasn't just looking for a wealthy husband).

Instead we get Anne drunkenly making it awkward at dinner by saying "Charles asked me to marry him first".

Anne's whole deal is that she holds her feelings inside and works hard at fitting in as well as she can in all these various homes (none of which are ideal for her). She has to be this way so she has somewhere to live and some variation of company. Also someone in this position isn't likely to offend the people hosting her by stealing all their booze.

I also hated that they messed with the wording of Wentworth's letter to Anne late in the film. High tariff manoeuvre that did not work.

I didn't mind the casting, just felt like the screenwriting was way way off.

Given that probably one of the strongest elements was the casting of William Elliot, I'm sad they got rid of the plotline with Mrs Smith. I quite liked how he was written as relatively intelligent and lively so it feels like they could have done something with Anne finding out he's also capable of hurting his friends (in the form of Mr and Mrs Smith) and it would have added some extra emotional punch to the film. Wentworth as written here, though, did nothing for me. I think flashbacks would have worked better than Anne's on the nose monologues about their past together. I also hated the lack of subtlety in their dialogue to one another like that bit where he all but says it's a shame they are in the 1800s and she cannot use her mind in some sort of important work.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Beatriceblake

[krankydoodle]

I didn't like it but didn't hate it as much as Slate's Dana Stevens (Netflix’s Persuasion Isn’t Just Bad Austen. It’s One of the Worst Movies in Years, yikes). I didn't like Cosmo Jarvis as Wentworth, Dakota Johnson mugging for the camera, or the pacing. This was under 2 hours but felt longer.

3 hours ago, Beatriceblake said:

Instead we get Anne drunkenly making it awkward at dinner by saying "Charles asked me to marry him first".

There were a few Bridget Jones-like moments that made me cringe, like when she yells for Frederick out the window. Thank goodness they didn't have Wentworth and Louisa stumble across Anne eavesdropping on them while she was mid-pee.

3 hours ago, Beatriceblake said:

I also hated the lack of subtlety in their dialogue to one another like that bit where he all but says it's a shame they are in the 1800s and she cannot use her mind in some sort of important work.

A lot of the dialogue lacked subtlety. Also, what was with William Elliot marrying Mrs. Clay at the end?

Richard E. Grant was underused, but I did like the Musgroves and Henry Golding.

Edited July 16, 2022 by krankydoodle

[Phebemarie]

Prude alert warning:

I was surprised  by all the innuendos, and Lady Russell acknowledging she had an interesting social life on the continent.   (Although I'm glad she wasn't the villain like she was in the 1995 version.  Having two POC actors playing unsavory characters would have been a bit much).  

I really didn't care for it.  Wentworth was heart-eyes from their first meeting.  Anne must have been too busy swilling red to notice the way he was looking at her.  The fake out wedding at the end seemed like a cheap shot for a quick parting laugh before returning to the swoony music and extreme close-ups of Anne and Wentworth making out on the cliff tops.     The entire production was like that:  misplaced humor followed by romantic moments with overtly romantic piano music.  

[Bellatrix]

So that was awful.

[shipmate]

I liked it, but I also knew nothing about the story going into it. I also found myself trying to figure out if Dakota Johnson had her teeth fixed from time to time. 
Now I need to compare it to other adaptations as I watch them.

[sacrebleu]

I'm in the 'hate it' camp. It seems as if those making it assume the audience is stupid. They were afraid the audience wouldn't like reserved Anne, so they have her monologuing to the camera to make sure everyone knows Anne is clever, loves Wentworth, isn't fooled by Mr. Elliot, knows Mary is horrible etc. 

[Haleth]

Ok, I didn’t hate this but there were tons of problems with it, aside from the anachronistic dialog.  Never for a moment did I think this Anne could be persuaded to turn away the love of her life. (And did they forget it was Lady Russell who did the persuading?). Anne should not be spunky. And she should not be getting drunk and uttering inappropriate comments. It misses the whole point of a sheltered, obedient girl being manipulated by her elders and then growing into her own authentic self. Speaking of missed, I missed the shocking reveal that Mrs Clay was trying to seduce Mr Elliot (revealed by Mrs Smith?). It was too matter of fact in this version.  I never considered Persuasion to be a rom com, but I guess if you squint while reading it can be?  Whatever.

On the other hand, you can never go wrong with a bunny.

For the record I could not stomach the recent version of Emma. I had to turn it off because it was so terrible. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Haleth

[MisterGlass]

On 7/16/2022 at 6:34 PM, shipmate said:

I liked it, but I also knew nothing about the story going into it.

If you're interested, there are free audio books of it on LibriVox.  I like this one.

[proserpina65]

On 7/15/2022 at 7:02 PM, Trini said:

This seems to be the gist of the reviews I've come across.

All but one of the reviews I've read have described it as bad at best and a travesty at worst.  There was one which actually like it, something I blame on the reviewer drinking a a lot of alcohol prior to watching.

17 hours ago, Haleth said:

On the other hand, you can never go wrong with a bunny. 

That was pretty much the only thing I liked.  Bunnies are cute!

[Luckylyn]

I didn’t like it but I don’t think it’s not the worst adaptation.   My favorite Persuasion adaptation is the only in 1995.  

Normally a character breaking the 4th wall doesn’t bother me but this movie overdoes it.  It came off as lazy as if they wanted to short cut exposition.   Their efforts to imitate clever Fleabag just did not work.

 I am not a purist.  I really liked Mansfield Park 1999 despite them completely changing Fanny’s personality.  I am still waiting for an adaptation  that gets Fanny right.  Still on its on Mansfield Park is a movie I enjoy.   I also liked Emma 2020.  
 

Persuasion 2022 doesn’t work for me.  The romance is lacking.  The narration style is jarring and overdone.  They don’t understand how effective nuance can be.  It hits like a hammer and over-explains because it doesn’t trust the audience to comprehend.  It doesn’t understand who the characters are or the heart of the story.

Modern Gurlz Persuasion Review 

[Conotocarious]

I’d love to see flashback sequences to parallel the relationship then and now and showing Anne’s growth from meek and easily persuaded to making her own decisions. That would have been a far better adaptation than one that adds cheeky modern language and glances at the camera and calls it a fresh take on the material. That’s not new or fresh and its certainly not a reimagining. There are far better ways to have the story feel fresh and to have the romance work.

I like Dakota Johnson though. I knew after 50 Shades she’s have a career despite everyone being certain she would not. 

[Trini]

5 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

 I am not a purist. ...

I saw at least one review that said Austen purists were being too severe on this, but you don't have be a purist to see the problems with the choices here. I'm all for re-imaginings, but I don't think the approach they took worked for this story/setting.

[Hiyo]

Quote

I'm all for re-imaginings, but I don't think the approach they took worked for this story/setting.

I wonder if the style would have worked better had they set it in the modern era (kind of like Clueless).

[Bellatrix]

7 hours ago, Conotocarious said:

I like Dakota Johnson though. I knew after 50 Shades she’s have a career despite everyone being certain she would not. 

Yeah, her casting was the only part I actually liked. Oh, and the bunny. And Richard E. Grant. (Any fans should watch him in The Little Vampire (2000). Very smexy.)

I blame the script, the directing, and the rest of the casting for this travesty.

I would have loved to watch her in a proper filmatisation of Persuasion. The fact that opportunity was lost is just another reason to be bitter about this pile of trash.

[AngieBee1]

I'm a Dakota Johnson fan starting back from her tiny, tiny role in THE SOCIAL NETWORK and her Fox series BEN AND KATE, but she didn't do it for me in this film. She didn't adjust her delivery or her mannerisms to make it seem that she was in a period piece. I just keeping seeing that meme in my head of "Dakota Johnson has the face of someone who knows what an iPhone is." I feel the only way she would have worked in this was if it was time-traveling fantasy of a modern day woman being transported into the story of "Persuasion". She was an ill-fit.

[Evie]

As an adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, this was horrible. As just a movie, I actually kind of enjoyed it. I liked Dakota Johnson and actually didn't mind her talking to the camera. 

[Bellatrix]

16 hours ago, AngieBee1 said:

I'm a Dakota Johnson fan starting back from her tiny, tiny role in THE SOCIAL NETWORK and her Fox series BEN AND KATE, but she didn't do it for me in this film. She didn't adjust her delivery or her mannerisms to make it seem that she was in a period piece. I just keeping seeing that meme in my head of "Dakota Johnson has the face of someone who knows what an iPhone is." I feel the only way she would have worked in this was if it was time-traveling fantasy of a modern day woman being transported into the story of "Persuasion". She was an ill-fit.

See, here is where I blame the directing more than Dakota Johnson. 

The director clearly wanted the movie this way (goodness only knows why), and when the director wants something a certain way the actor or actress is quite powerless to stop it.

I saw some real sparks of brilliance in her performance, and mourn what could have been. Of course, she was not precisely Anne Elliot, she was an Elizabeth Bennet-ized version of Anne Elliot. But feel that I can no more blame her for that than Frances O'Connor for her Elizabeth Bennet-ized Fanny Price in Mansfield Park (1999). I rather loved that movie until I read the book. *g* I agree with the poster above that it is a good movie in its own right.

The script is to blame for that.

And they could even have made that work for them, if they were hellbent on Elizabeth Bennet-izing Anne.

But they pulled so much weirdness on top of that. The constant talking to the camera, and as you say, not letting her adjust her delivery or her mannerisms to make it seem that she was in a period piece.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Bellatrix

[Scarlett45]

I echo those who said as an adaptation of Persuasion it was bad, but as a movie it was okay. 
 

It was pretty, and I liked Anne (although I didnt see this Anne as the Anne of the novel). I even liked Wentworth, of what we saw of him, but I didn’t buy their great love. Elliot was hot (duh) but again, we didn’t learn anything about him. Anne’s sisters were funny. 
 

It was very superficial. 

On 7/19/2022 at 1:53 PM, Hiyo said:

I wonder if the style would have worked better had they set it in the modern era (kind of like Clueless).

I think if they had put it in the 21st century and made Wentworth a social media influencer or something it could’ve been quite good. I have always said that Jane Austen was the first rom com writer as we know it- her stories are full of tropes I love, and with movies like Clueless even if you’re not looking for a Jane Austen adaptation (or care about that), you can enjoy it as a film. 

[Guest]

I expected to hate it, and found I only disliked it. 

The constant glances to the camera were repetitive and redundant, and they changed Anne’s basic personality so much that it wasn’t at all like in the book.

[Cherpumple]

This was... odd. Based on the trailer, I was all set to roll my eyes at a sassy version of Anne Elliott, but they really made her more of an awkward, adorkable type, which caught me even more off guard. She's supposed to be the dependable one, the one that can run the household with her eyes closed while everyone else focuses on nonsense, and here they had her blurting out embarrassing stories about octopus dreams and drunkenly yelling out of windows. I guess they really wanted to lean into that Bridget Jones comparison for some reason. And I agree that this version of Anne doesn't fit the storyline of someone who was persuaded to give up her great love.

In terms of an adaptation, the most disappointing scene for me was Anne and Wentworth's first meeting. In the book, this scene hit me hard because you can tell it's a total gut punch for Anne to see him unexpectedly walk in the door. It's a moment she's thought about for eight years, and it knocks the emotional wind out of her in a way that I could completely relate to, and it sucked to see it reduced to a comical moment in which Anne goes directly into snarky banter mode. Yawn.

Adaptation aside, I don't think it worked very well as a film. It just felt very rushed, with a lot of telling instead of showing. The William Elliott/Miss Clay "romance" was too abrupt and pointless, and I honestly don't know if those two were meant to be really in love, or just two schemers. It was bizarre to see them get the fairy tale wedding with everyone else looking up adoringly, when they had been set up as villains. I also don't like thinking about Lady Russell as a sex tourist, and most of the other characters were barely developed. Also, I thought it was really weird that Wentworth gave his oddly specific speech about how good Anne is in an emergency BEFORE Louisa fell. It would've made much more sense if he said it afterwards, which I think is what happened in the book (it's been a while since I read it). And speaking of Louisa, everyone seemed strangely blasé about her head injury. It definitely seemed like a more serious touch-and-go crisis in other versions. In this one, as soon as Anne and Wentworth arrive Louisa's house to tell Louisa's parents, Anne smiles vaguely and says she's off to Bath in a totally unconcerned way. It almost felt as if even the characters knew this was a plot device that would work out, so they didn't bother getting upset about it.

On 7/19/2022 at 2:53 PM, Hiyo said:

I wonder if the style would have worked better had they set it in the modern era (kind of like Clueless).

While not strictly "modern" anymore, I'm convinced that the 1991 movie Soapdish (starring Sally Field, Kevin Kline, and Robert Downey jr.) is a retelling of Persuasion, set in the world of daytime soap operas. I've never seen this discussed or confirmed anywhere, but there are way too many plot similarities to be a coincidence. It's also just a hilarious movie for fans of old soaps from the 80s (but FYI, the ending is extremely dated and transphobic).

[voiceover]

This hideous take on Persuasion replicates how current filmmakers are destroying Star Wars/MCU/DC/Star Trek/LOTR.   For the sake
of Twitter and IG likes, they are dumbing down and chewing up the classics with huuuuuge devoted fanbases, to spit the new versions into the mouths of the new generation they *want to acquire. And in this way, they lose the devoted, who are turned off by the changes. And in this way, they lose the new fans they sought, whose general reax is "Didja
think we were STUPID? and unable to
appreciate the original work in context??"

Why yes. Yes they do.

[JustHereForFood]

I generally don't always agree with Austen purists (I loved 2005's P&P for example), so I went into this with an open mind, but yeah, it was bad. Not 1999's Mansfield Park bad, but pretty close. It's been ages since I read the book and I probably remember it the least (except for Emma which I haven't read), but Anne didn't sound like she did in the book at all, I think. I could definitely do without the direct addressing to the audience and without writers portraying her as a "fuck-up". Also, with how little physical stuff there is in the books, it felt weird to see Anne and Wentworth kissing in those flashbacks. I didn't care much for him in the book, so no surprise that I didn't care for him one bit here, but I expected to like Anne more. I kind of thought I would prefer to watch a movie about her sisters in law instead. 

[Trini]

On 8/4/2022 at 10:10 PM, voiceover said:

This hideous take on Persuasion replicates how current filmmakers are destroying Star Wars/MCU/DC/Star Trek/LOTR.   For the sake
of Twitter and IG likes, they are dumbing down and chewing up the classics with huuuuuge devoted fanbases, to spit the new versions into the mouths of the new generation they *want to acquire. And in this way, they lose the devoted, who are turned off by the changes. And in this way, they lose the new fans they sought, whose general reax is "Didja think we were STUPID? and unable to appreciate the original work in context??"

The thing is - for me at least -one could make an adaptation of the story for the "instagram generation", but this was not it. I think it's doable by breaking it down to its basics and bringing it into a modern context.