Persuasion

[osprey_archer]

Because Julie and I are gluttons for punishment, we decided to watch the new Persuasion, directed by Carrie Cracknell and widely panned by critics. Because we went in forewarned, I actually found it… not as bad as expected? This is not to say that it’s a good movie, but there were in fact entertaining moments, almost all of which involved Anne’s hilariously narcissistic sister Mary (who plays her part with a deliciously self-absorbed gusto) or Anne flirting with Mr. Elliot.

Unfortunately the fact that these moments are the highlight of the movie only underscores the film’s failure as an adaptation of Persuasion: we’re supposed to be rooting for Anne to get back together with Captain Wentworth, not for her to get together with Mr. Elliot. But Captain Wentworth is boring! All his scenes with Anne are excruciatingly awkward! Whereas Anna and Mr. Elliot crackle with chemistry (he is played by Henry Golding, which gives him an unfair advantage), and although he’s kind of a sleazeball, so is this version of Anne.

The movie goes out of its way to emphasize and exaggerate Anne’s most unappealing qualities, like her tendency to sit in silent judgment of those around her. She criticizes Mary for her narcissism, claiming that Mary won’t notice that Anne is in the room till Anne coughs - then, later, herself fails to notice that someone else is present until that person coughs. A deliberate suggestion that Anne is as self-absorbed and obnoxious as the people she sneers at?

That’s certainly how they’ve decided to portray her in this movie. There’s one particularly dire scene where she attempts to prop up her flagging self-esteem and make Wentworth jealous by informing an entire dinner party that her little sister Mary’s husband initially wanted to marry Anne. It’s astonishing that Wentworth witnesses this impetuous humiliation of Anne’s sister and her sister’s husband in front of a gaggle of their relations, and still wants to marry Anne later on, because any sensible person would have looked at that exhibition and gone “Thank God we didn’t get married all those years ago, really dodged a bullet there.”

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Truly, the problem with this movie as a Persuasion adaption can be summed up by the fact that Sir Walter Elliot, Mary Musgrove, and Mr. Elliot were the most fun characters in it— they're awful, but at least they're funny?? Anne is awful and cringey, which is a worse crime in a character imo.

(That dinner party scene made me wish I had alcohol on hand. The octopus digression was also pretty dire.)

[kore]

-- Henry Golding is in this? Arrrrgh but I love him.

It sounds like they wanted to Fleabag-ify Emma, not Persuasion, maybe.

[asakiyume]

I read someone else's review of this and yeah. Wow.

[silverusagi]

I haven't watched this, though I have enjoyed various YouTube videos about it, lol.

[troisoiseaux]

I just found the best possible explanation for this movie (other than, you know, "producers didn't read the book"):

After being thrown out of Mansfield Park for letting slip that she would be happy if Tom Bertram died, Mary Crawford moves to a new town in need of a new identity. For reasons best known to herself, she chooses her victim as the often overlooked middle child, Anne Elliot. After murdering Anne and disposing of the body, she quietly assumes her new identity. Because the Elliot's never paid any attention to Anne anyway, over the next few years, Mary Crawford is able to cement the deception.

This is the only explanation for [Persuasion (2020)], right??