Pssst, want to check out Persuasion in our new look?
Information
- Year
- 2022
- Runtime
- 108 min.
- Director
- Carrie Cracknell
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Rating *
- 5.8
- Votes *
- 0
- Checks
- 365
- Favs
- 12
- Dislikes
- 16
- Favs/checks
- 3.3% (1:30)
- Favs/dislikes
- 1:1
Top comments
-
Neens
I wasn't gonna watch this, but then a fellow Janeite told me it is quite an entertaining film if you pretend it is just a romantic comedy set in Georgian times and nothing to do with Jane Austen. Which obviously is impossible for true fans of the novel. However, she was mostly right. I can forgive them turning Anne into a klutz. I can forgive the comedic talking to the camera. I can forgive the historic inaccuracies. I can almost even forgive the geographic inaccuracies (with the exception of two heavily edited shots, none of the events taking place in Lyme were actually filmed in Lyme). But when you mess with the plot - and change the wording in Captain Wentworth's letter - and then as a crowning blunder make Mr Elliott almost likeable and have him marry Mrs Clay, with all the Elliot family and relations in attendance - well, then you go too far. To quote another Jane Austen novel, it was badly done, indeed!
Still, I mostly enjoyed it, and much like the film version of Pride and Prejudice, I will definitely watch it again and probably come to love it in time, despite how many liberties they have taken with the plot. And as with P&P, though there are many film and TV adaptations, there is only one Darcy (Colin Firth, obvi - although Matthew Macfadyen's hand flex is totally swoonworthy), with Persuasion there can be only one Captain Wentworth, and that of course is Rupert Penry-Jones.
Still, I do think the time is ripe for another Persuasion adaptation. I just really wish someone would make one that is faithful to the novel. Jane Austen had an amazing ability for observing people and gently ridiculing their foibles, and messing around with her novels is like thinking you can improve on Shakespeare. It is sacrilege and the very height of audacity and badly done, indeed. 1 year 9 months ago -
