The Persuasion Review

So, I just got done watching the new BBC version of Jane Austen's "Persuasion." I must say....I am almost speechless. Or at least I'm trying to figure out what to say. Let's start with the things I know:

1) Wentworth was cute. Blondes generally are. But, he gave off this Darcy vibe of severity and reserve which I had previously not associated with Wentworth's character. I felt he was intense and a little dry. It just didn't seem true to Wentworth's persona from the book.

2) The countless headshots of Anne and Wentworth were hilarious. They would just stare straight at the camera. Who does that? And given the fact that the movie had trimmed the book down to a succinct 1.5 hours, I felt they could have used the headshot time and devoted it instead to the much neglected content of the story.

3) Mary Musgrove belonged in an insane asylum. Go pick her up, nice young men in clean white coats!

4) The Louisa fall was the high point of the film, hands down. If I didn't know it was coming, I would have been like..."Wait...what? What just happened? I think that was significant." She jumped down into Wentworth's arms, climbed swiftly back up, and PLOP. She was out cold with a bleeding laceration to her skull. It happened so fast, and was literally, a "Ahhh! Swoosh! Plop!" moment. Classic!

5) Giles as the silly father. That took me off guard. He wasn't bad, but at some points, I had to think, "Why is Giles dressed up all funny? Shouldn't he be out dusting a vamp or singing a ballad in the Bronze?" Elizabeth Elliot, the older sister, looked too old. It bothered me. But not as much as Mr. Elliot, the cousin. He made me go "EWWWW" a number of times, and his storyline was never resolved. Anne just found out from her friend whilst she was running wild around the streets of Bath that Mr. Elliot had sinister intentions and had already declared who was to be his mistress once he was married to Anne. That was it. No public humiliation. No irate refusal of his proposal. Nothing. He just disappeared. Once again, I was struck by the necessity for 20 more minutes, or 20 minutes less of wistful headshots.

6) Anne was fine. But she was a little bland. If I were Wentworth, I would have decided that upon further reflection, she really had nothing to recommend herself in terms of personality, except that she's not as crazy as her family. Which, if you ask me, is not saying much.

7) How dare they mess with the ending? And have Anne talk about constancy to Benwick! When Wentworth couldn't even hear what she was saying! His final letter needed that impetus of Anne's declaration that women are just as constant as men and cannot recover from a deep love. Hello! He needed that to push him over the edge of propriety and write the tortured-lover letter. But no. We got the letter without cause and Anne running around Bath with a total want of lady-like decorum. Interesting creative liberties were taken, and I shall leave it at that.

8) Anne's fall while walking on the log and the subsequent event of Wentworth putting her up on the Croft's carriage were also noteworthy. She biffed it on the log and we were treated to a view of what she saw - the world spinning 'round and coming in to focus on Wentworth's face. When I fall (a few select times in my personal history, might I add), I hope I'm not that swoonish and damsel in distress-like as she was. And when the walking party ran in to the Croft's, you barely saw Wentworth talk to them, telling them to take Anne. He just walked over, lead her to the back, and swiftly picked her up and she rode off into the brush. It was all very sudden. Just like Louisa's fall, it lost some of its potency as a subtle revealing point in the characters of Wentworth and Anne and the storyline.

Overall, it was an acceptable Sunday night flick. It was quiet and Austen-ish. But it lacked the subtlety and poignancy of the book and 1995 film version, which for me, make the story into something more than just another chick flick. There needed to be more interactions between Anne and Wentworth, and they both needed to acquire and/or demonstrate personalities. I think with a little more story content and resolution, a bit of character reworking, and more time to develop the key relationships, this could have been more than just acceptable. But, such as it is, I'm grateful that I was able to watch a new Jane Austen adaptation. The world is always a better place with another quality, wholesome Austen-inspired film. So, let me know what you all thought! And now I'm in the mood for the 1995 version. And I don't have it! Drat!