Persuasion

Very well done......up until the last 10 minutes.
"Persuasion" is tied with "Pride & Prejudice" as my top favorite Jane Austen novel. I was looking forward to this version, after being a little disappointed with the 1995 adaptation (actors were a bit too old for their roles, I thought, but that's another review).

While "Northanger Abbey" is a story of young love, "Persuasion" is a story of love lost. Anne Eliott was once engaged to Frederick Wentworth but has had to give up the engagement due to the persuasion of her friend Lady Russell. Anne is the daughter of a baronet and Frederick is a young lieutenant with little prospects and was deemed by her friends and family as not worthy enough to marry Anne. Fast forward to 7 or so years later, and Anne's family is in dire circumstances. Her family has to move from their large country estate to Bath in an effort to retrench and avoid further debt. Frederick returns to England as a wealthy and highly eligible naval captain and his and Anne's paths meet again. Frederick is...

Ack! What to say??
Ok, just to let you know, I'm just finishing a whole semester focusing on this book, so I feel like a bit of an authority! Anyway, the great thing about this movie, besides Wentworth being so smoking HOT (sorry Ciaran), is its appeal to Austen newbies: it simplifies and reorganizes the story so it makes sense in a screenplay. That said, if you're an Austen purist, this movie is going to kill you!

From the start, the details are rearranged, making me cringe at the lost subtleties from the novel. The very climax of the book, the all important conversation between Anne and Harville and Wentworth's subsequent letter, are broken into separate sections of the movie and completely out of order. Sure it works, but its not right! I felt I was denied one of the greatest scenes of the book! Ugh!

As for the actors, besides Wentworth being hot (I feel I must reiterate this) he wasn't necessarily better or worse than Ciaran, just a different take. Anne was mixed: one minute I...

Disappointing adaptation
I'm sorry to say I found this version profoundly disappointing. "Persuasion" is my favorite Austen novel, and I sat down to watch it with high hopes. Fortunately we have the rich, subtle Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds version the BBC made in 1995 to turn to. Not only is it more faithful to the novel, it is also a smoother story, less choppy and abrupt.

I had a number of objections, but my chief one was the alteration to the character of Anne Elliot. She is supposed to be a woman of quiet moral strength whose family dismisses her as a nonentity. She courageously makes the best of a life that has disappointed her ever since she was persuaded to give up marrying the man of her choice years earlier. This version portrayed her as a poor, pathetic, meek creature who hides away in a corner and weeps whenever anyone hurts her feelings. My secondary objection was the kissing and wild running around the street. No respectable woman of the period would EVER have behaved that way in...

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