Netflix has tried its hand at modernising one of Jane Austin’s classic novels. Yet, this adaptation had a lot of promise with a star-filled cast, yet this film underdeliver.
Persuasion is about the wealthy, attractive, and beautiful Anne Elliot who once fell hopelessly in love with the young sailor Frederick Wentworth. They had made plans to wed. However, Anne's friends and family persuaded her that she should not waste her youth on a man with little money and even fewer prospects, and as a result, she broke Wentworth's heart.
What was really strange about this film, was it did feel as if it was influenced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge's popular series Fleabag. If it weren’t for that show, would we have been given this new adaptation of Persuasion. There are a lot of adaptations out there of Jane Austin's novels over the years, however, this one is one of the weakest that have been produced so far.
Not only do we have to deal with Anne Elliott (Dakota Johnson) looking and speaking towards the camera, and the strange glances as well. The majority of reviews for this film have been negative, and it is clear from the first 10 minutes that this film isn’t going to be for everyone. What is common across all reviews, including this one is we all feel as if this film is a rip-off of Fleabag.
This film tries to be funny, but none of the jokes really land. It also tries to take inspiration from Bridgerton, but again it falls short of getting the job done. It was hoped that Dakota Johnson would be the redeeming factor of this film. Yet, her glances at the camera feel extremely awkward and overused.
Throughout the film, energy is generally missing, a fact that the movie appears to be completely unaware of. It fails miserably as an interpretation of Persuasion by Jane Austen. This movie's emotional range is weak thus you can't really connect with the characters. Also, its characterisation is lacking, in contrast to Jane Austen's original story, which is devastating in its restraint. Inexcusably, this adaptation muddles one of Austen's most passionate scenes by undermining the famous letter-writing scene to the point where it loses all sense of coherence and, thus, all emotional impact.
It appears that the film believes the audience are too dumb to understand Jane Austen's writing by yourself, so rather than attempting to bring her work to life, it has chosen to spoon-feed you a summary. As a result, Persuasion is one of the worst films I’ve watched for a while. It lacks the romance and humour that was advertised.
With such a high-profile cast, my expectations were high, and this is the worst Jane Austin adaptation I have witnessed so far. It looks nice, but there is no substance to enjoy watching the film. Thus making it forgettable and dull.
Performance | 2/5 |
Enjoyment | 1.5/5 |
Overall Rating | 1.7/5 |