By Dominique Tassell
It’s the new movie everyone is criticising online, and is it for good reason?
Persuasion dropped on Netflix on 15 July, but even before its release Austen fans online were gearing up for a rant.
From the moment the trailer dropped it was clear there were some issues. Namely, the ‘fleabagification’ of Jane Austen.
But really, Persuasion’s problem is it’s just trying to do far too much.
Anne Elliot’s fleabag-esque quips to camera throughout the movie should have been contrasted with a very quiet persona in her interactions with others, like her personality in the novel, but this distinction isn’t made.
Anne is the most self-contained of all the Austen protagonists, so the fourth wall breaks are actually a good idea for portraying her. But a combination of Dakota Johnson’s delivery and the writing and direction let this down.
Throughout the movie, I couldn’t decide if the creative team were trying to make a comedy or an emotional drama. But they ended up failing at both.
The jokes don’t quite land, and I wanted to actually leave the room when Johnson delivered the playlist line.
Persuasion just isn’t the Austen novel you choose to turn into a comedy.
As a novel, it’s devastating. It’s a woman’s journey of learning she’s allowed to have feelings and go after what she wants. Is that really funny?
The best part of the movie is the part truest to the novel and that’s Wentworth’s letter.
“I’m half agony half hope” will always absolutely ravage my soul. But even then, I don’t know if a non-Austen fan would be moved by it in this film?
I get wanting to introduce a new group to Austen, but is it effective when you completely warp the source material in the process? Does the narrative have as much payoff and impact?
Clueless adapting Emma and 10 Things I Hate About You adapting The Taming of the Shrew are examples of adapting classics into modern films that were perfectly done.
And I get Persuasion wanted to be a middle ground where it’s still a period piece, but it just gets so muddied along the way because it doesn’t know what it is.
For a comedy, like this film seemed to want to be, Pride and Prejudice and Emma lend themselves to comedy far more easily.
We’re even due for a Pride and Prejudice adaptation; we haven’t had one since 2005!
At the end of the day, I really do think that making the classics accessible isn’t the evil some are making it out to be. The movie isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but they chose the wrong novel and executed their ideas poorly.
Modernising and simplifying the language wouldn’t be so bad but the problem with Persuasion is that it doesn’t just modernise the language, it erases everything but the main plot points and calls it a day.
Some of the tik toks mocking the movie’s dialogue are genuinely funny, and now I kind of want a movie where they execute that better.
What I really want more of, though, is Henry Golding in period pieces. That man is so darn pretty I can’t stand it.
