persuasion movie reviews 2022

Purists will be peeved, but whatever is wrong with this new version of Jane Austen ’s “ Persuasion ” has little to do with its modern makeover.

We’ve seen countless contemporized takes on Austen’s classics, from the high-school matchmaking of the quotable “ Clueless ” to the recent “ Emma. ,” which stayed true to the Regency time period but was so fresh and alive, it felt brand new. Just this year, Andrew Ahn ’s “ Fire Island ” had the vision to take “ Pride and Prejudice ” and turn it into a frothy rom-com in queer paradise.

If anything, director Carrie Cracknell ’s “Persuasion” achieves an intriguing pop-culture full-circle moment. Austen influenced “ Bridget Jones ’s Diary,” and now Bridget herself seems to have influenced Dakota Johnson ’s thoroughly charming portrayal of Anne Elliot. There’s lots of drinking red wine straight from the bottle, crying in the tub and lying around in bed, narrating her romantic woes with a familiar, self-effacing wit. She also repeatedly breaks the fourth wall, “Fleabag”-style, with an amusingly dry aside or a well-timed eye roll. Anne jokes that she’s “thriving,” and clearly she is anything but, but she’s so winning in her state of loss that we can’t help but root for her. Johnson doesn’t get to be funny very often—go back and watch “ Fifty Shades of Grey ,” if you dare, for a taste of her under-appreciated comic timing—so it’s a pleasure to see her show off that side of her talent again here.

Johnson, and several of the supporting players, manage to hold the film together when the lack of stakes and emotional weight threaten to pull it apart. Still, it’s impossible to care about whether Anne ends up with Frederick Wentworth because, as played by Cosmo Jarvis , he is so stiff and uncharismatic. There’s not a single moment in their interactions that makes us understand why a woman who’s so practical and astute would be pining for him for the past eight years. Austen’s final novel is called “Persuasion” because it’s about how the snobs surrounding Anne persuaded her to reject Wentworth when he had no rank or fortune. Now he’s back, and he’s a captain, but he remains a dreadful bore. There’s supposed to be a distance and an awkwardness when Anne and Wentworth reconnect, but there’s also no friction or tension, leaving us to think her friends and family probably had the right idea way back when.

Anne has remained single all these years, but her family is in a state of flux at the film’s start. On the brink of financial ruin because of the impulsive spending habits of the vain Sir Walter Elliot ( Richard E. Grant , in a perfect bit of casting as the preening patriarch), the family must downsize to more suitable digs for the time being. As they move out of their estate, Admiral Croft and his wife move in—and she happens to be the sister of Wentworth. His return from the Napoleonic Wars prompts Anne to reflect on their romance, including the “playlist” he made her, which, cleverly is a stack of sheet music. Johnson’s British accent is so-so; she doesn’t overdo it and become a posh parody, but she’s also a little inconsistent here. Still, there’s a new kind of soulfulness in her eyes that’s compelling, and of course she’s radiant even in her anxiety and sorrow.

Naturally, various obstacles stand in the way of Anne and Wentworth reconciling, beyond her pride and his mistrust. Mia McKenna-Bruce is a hoot as Anne’s vapid and narcissistic younger sister, Mary; the fact that she’s so acutely aware of and articulate about her many shortcomings actually makes her more appealing. Newcomer Nia Towle brings an effervescence to the role of Louisa, Anne’s sister-in-law, and one of several examples of the film’s “Bridgerton”-style approach to anachronistic, racially diverse casting. However, Louisa supposedly makes a romantic connection of her own with Wentworth that feels hurried and unearned in the script from veteran Ron Bass and newcomer Alice Victoria Winslow .

And once Henry Golding shows up as the arrogant Mr. Elliot, Anne’s caddish cousin, he provides such a much-needed romantic spark that you’ll almost wish she’d just run away with him already. Sure, he’s totally wrong for her, but he’s the one man who’s on her level intellectually. Gorgeous people in fabulous clothes exchanging snappy banter: Give us more of that, please.

At least all the lush trappings you’re looking for in an Austen adaptation exist here, as the story travels from stately Kellynch Hall to the quaint countryside of Uppercross to the dramatic cliffs of Lyme to the chic townhomes of Bath. The lighting is cool and mysterious at night, bright and full of promise in the daytime. ( Joe Anderson , whose previous films include David Lowery ’s “ The Old Man and the Gun ,” provides the dreamy cinematography.) You want billowy dresses blowing in the beachy breeze, you’ve got ‘em, and that’s almost enough.

On Netflix today. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot
• Henry Golding as William Elliot
• Cosmo Jarvis as Frederick Wentworth
• Richard E. Grant as Sir Walter Elliot
• Yolanda Kettle as Elizabeth Elliot
• Nia Towle as Louisa Musgrove
• Alice Victoria Winslow
• Carrie Cracknell

Writer (based on the novel "Persuasion" written by)

• Jane Austen

Cinematographer

• Joe Anderson
• Stuart Earl

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All the winners (updating live), dakota johnson in netflix’s ‘persuasion’: film review.

Cosmo Jarvis, Henry Golding and Richard E. Grant also star in this reworking of Jane Austen’s last completed novel, the feature debut of London stage director Carrie Cracknell.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Jane Austen purists will be aghast, but if you go with director Carrie Cracknell ’s playful makeover of the author’s ruminative last completed novel into a buoyant Regency rom-com, you could be pleasantly surprised. Freely mixing language lifted from Austen’s prose with distinctly modern words and attitudes — this is a movie in which someone is described as “electrifying” in a pre-electric age — Persuasion is sufficiently bold and consistent with its flagrant liberties to get away with them. It also helps that the novel’s long-suffering protagonist, Anne Elliot, has been given irrepressible spirit and an irreverent sense of irony in Dakota Johnson ’s incandescent performance.

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It’s easy to argue that Austen’s darkest, most mature novel was never meant to be treated like Emma , but Johnson, in her most lighthearted role to date, makes us complicit in Anne’s wry take on early 19th century mores. That goes in particular for her deadpan self-knowledge as a free-thinking young woman who’s an outsider in her class-conscious, cash-strapped family, not to mention one still simmering in regret over a spurned love and now approaching an age that makes her almost unmarriageable by the standards of the day. Never mind that the luminous Johnson will be nobody’s idea of a spinster outshone by her narcissistic sisters.

Release date : Friday, July 15 Cast : Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Richard E. Grant, Henry Golding, Ben Bailey-Smith, Yolanda Kettle, Nia Towle Director : Carrie Cracknell Screenwriters : Alice Victoria Winslow, Ron Bass; based on the novel by Jane Austen

Self-awareness and a big obvious wink to millennial audiences are written into the nimble screenplay by newcomer Alice Victoria Winslow and veteran Ron Bass, trading Austen’s subtle inferences, her carefully laid foreshadowing and teasing anticipation for a blunt candor that defies the repression of the times. The period trappings may remain in place, but the prism through which the story is told is very much that of a modern woman in a multiracial society, and you’ll either go with that or you won’t.

Still miserable years after being “persuaded” to ditch Frederick Wentworth ( Cosmo Jarvis ), the handsome sailor without rank who wanted to marry her at 19, the heroine chugs wine from a bottle and sobs in a bathtub, wistfully stroking her pet bunny while insisting she’s “thriving.” She’s Bridget Jones in a Regency frock. Anne punctuates the film by breaking the fourth wall with droll direct-to-camera commentary and silent double takes right out of Fleabag . The immediacy this gives the character will likely endear the Netflix feature to young audiences who don’t care a whit about fealty to Austen’s novel.

In its own sprightly fashion, this is as radical a riff on an Austen classic as Fire Island , Andrew Ahn’s queer spin on Pride and Prejudice , illustrating that there’s still plenty of life left for inventive screen treatments of one of English literature’s favorite adaptation sources. It could hardly be more different from the best-known — and still best — screen version of Persuasion , Roger Michell’s 1995 British TV movie (released theatrically in the U.S.) starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds, which was far more melancholic and reflective in tone, in keeping with the novel.

The circumstances that conspire to throw Anne and Frederick in each other’s paths again eight lonely years after their split derive from the Elliot family having to endure some reluctant belt-tightening.

With debt collectors constantly at the door, Anne’s vain peacock father, Sir Walter Elliot (a hilariously preening Richard E. Grant ), and self-involved older sister Elizabeth (Yolanda Kettle) are forced to rent out the stately Somerset family manse, Kellynch Hall, and downgrade to a residence in Bath. Looking on the bright side, Elizabeth’s friend Mrs. Clay (Lydia Rose Bewley) utters one of several lines that will make the anachronism police’s heads explode: “It is often said, if you’re a five in London, you’ll be a ten in Bath.”

Anne is forced to stay behind to provide company for her married younger sister Mary Musgrove (Mia McKenna-Bruce), a monstrously self-dramatizing hypochondriac whose FOMO kicks in whenever anyone assumes her sickly state will exclude her from an outing.

The new tenants at Kellynch Hall are Wentworth’s older sister and her husband, meaning Anne’s former beau will become a frequent visitor. The sailor has risen through the ranks to captain during the Napoleonic wars, becoming a man of means in the process. But he remains without a wife.

The obstacles set up by Austen to delay the inevitable union of these predestined lovebirds have been considerably streamlined, primarily because the characters are less circumspect, less constrained by societal reserve and able to speak more freely at each encounter. But both Anne and Frederick are nonetheless reluctant to admit they’ve never gotten over one another. “Now we’re worse than strangers, we’re exes,” moans Anne, in a line I’ll admit made me both laugh and wince.

There’s also the hindrance of Mary’s flighty sister-in-law Louisa (Nia Towle), who starts out as matchmaker but ends up having designs on Wentworth herself (“He’s everything!”). Then there’s Anne’s dashing but shady distant cousin Mr. Elliot ( Henry Golding ), in line to inherit the family estate thanks to Sir Walter’s failure to produce a son.

Golding convincingly turns on the charm, but his is the least satisfyingly written character in this version — too crassly transparent to beguile someone as smart as Anne. He freely confesses his scheme to prevent Sir Walter from remarrying and siring a male heir, even while wooing Anne. Mr. Elliot was designed to be a figure of mystery with a hidden agenda; exposing all that from the outset undermines his effectiveness.

In the interest of making the story more zippy and straightforward, much of Austen’s nuance is jettisoned, particularly the double bind of Anne not wishing to disappoint family friend and adviser Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird), who herself feels remorse for having counseled Anne against marrying Wentworth years earlier. The regret that seeps through the novel is significantly diluted.

But any sacrifices in terms of texture are more than compensated by the warmth Johnson brings to the central role, straddling the divide between now and then with graceful command. Her intimacy with the camera appears quite natural, making her a good fit for Austen’s free indirect discourse, and her English accent is more than passable. Jarvis ( Peaky Blinders , Lady Macbeth ), with his sexy stubble and mutton chops, makes a fine Wentworth, smoldering quietly while keeping his cards close to his vest. For anyone not too bothered by departures from the novel, the romantic denouement will be immensely pleasurable.

Tackling her first feature, seasoned London stage director Cracknell draws solid work from the ensemble, showing a firm handle on the tricky Regency/contemporary balancing act and a pleasing grasp of pacing, enhanced by Stuart Earl’s delicate score.

Persuasion doesn’t have the Wes Anderson-esque visual sumptuousness of Autumn de Wilde’s Emma from 2020, but there’s a similar attention to detail in the gorgeous pastel interiors of John Paul Kelly’s production design, while Marianne Agertoft’s costumes evoke the period with a more relaxed, minimalist flair, in keeping with the modern take. (Sir Walter’s brocade coat is fop heaven.) DP Joe Anderson’s elegant compositions make the most of some beautiful countryside settings, notably when the party travels to Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast.

From the minute the trailer dropped, the Austenite gatekeepers were crying sacrilege, and sure, this will rankle lovers of the novel. But it’s a movie that knows exactly what it’s doing, using its source as a baseline rather than an unyielding blueprint, with a star ideally chosen to navigate its century-crossing gambit. She’s a woman susceptible to persuasion but ultimately driven by her own sense of agency. Approached as a free-standing rom-com only loosely tethered to its origins, the film is a sweet distraction.

[One of the film’s producers, MRC, is a co-owner of The Hollywood Reporter through a joint venture with Penske Media titled PMRC.]

Full credits

Distribution: Netflix Production companies: MRC, Bisous Pictures, Mad Chance, Fourth & Twenty Eight Films Cast: Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Richard E. Grant, Henry Golding, Ben Bailey-Smith, Yolanda Kettle, Nia Towle, Izuka Hoyle, Lydia Rose Bewley, Edward Bleumel, Afolabi Alli Director: Carrie Cracknell Screenwriters: Alice Victoria Winslow, Ron Bass; based on the novel by Jane Austen Producers: Andrew Lazar, Christina Weiss Lurie Executive producers: Elizabeth Cantillon, Michael Constable, David Fliegel Director of photography: Joe Anderson Production designer: John Paul Kelly Costume designer: Marianne Agertoft Music: Stuart Earl Editor: Pani Scott Casting: Dixie Chassay

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Eight years after Anne Elliot was persuaded not to marry a dashing man of humble origins, they meet again. Will she seize her second chance at true love? Eight years after Anne Elliot was persuaded not to marry a dashing man of humble origins, they meet again. Will she seize her second chance at true love? Eight years after Anne Elliot was persuaded not to marry a dashing man of humble origins, they meet again. Will she seize her second chance at true love?

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• Trivia Henry Golding & Cosmo Jarvis's Costumes Reflected Their Personalities. Wentworth's minimalist closet allowed him to "fit in" without making a big fashion statement, while Golding's performance demanded a "sort of a swagger," so beautifully fitted dark dusters and frock coats were made to emphasize his "brilliant confidence."
• Goofs Captain Wentworth is seen wearing his naval uniform. As a captain, he is missing both epaulets and the golden chevrons on his collar. Also, naval regulations of the time would have dictated him to be clean shaven, which also would have applied to his brother the Admiral.

Sir Walter Elliot : What use is a title if you have to earn it? What use is anything if you have to earn it?

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Persuasion Reviews

Austen has been refashioned before. But Persuasion wants both worlds – the updated story and the historical setting. However, not only does this modern edge not gel with the original novel, but it leads to a questionable tone.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2024

Undersells its source material and underestimates Jane Austen fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 12, 2024

This version of Persuasion has a few terrific things about it, but the overall package is…less than persuasive.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 3, 2024

If you take it completely on its own terms and don't see it as an Austen adaptation, there's stuff in it that is fun.

Full Review | Feb 6, 2024

Don’t waste your precious time on a film that so profoundly misunderstands the work that it is based on that it makes one wonder if anyone involved in the production actually read the novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 17, 2023

The anachronistic armchair psychology about narcissism and self-care could work if the proceedings were not so dull and angst-filled.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 16, 2023

Persuasion (2022) does not entirely work because it’s afraid to fully commit to the screwball comedy stylings the film briefly touches upon.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2023

It’s not a bad film, but it’s not a good one either, falling somewhere closer to just “okay.”

Full Review | Jul 23, 2023

Dakota Johnson, as always, looks like a painting in Persuasion. She is so effortlessly hilarious, charming, and undoubtedly gorgeous.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 20, 2023

For every viewer cheering on an Austen adaptation doing something new and a bit exciting there’s another in need of smelling salts.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 9, 2023

It’s unfortunate that even my love for Jane Austen could not get me to feel connected to this story...The film attempts to convey coyness and comedy and it leads itself to making Persuasion feel hollow, messy, and boring.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 4, 2023

Like its heroine, Persuasion has an identity crisis.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2022

“Persuasion” isn’t a very good movie. It’s flat and lacks the spark that it needs to make us care.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2022

The idea that the film does not actually like its heroine is the most interesting thing about this adaptation … But ultimately, [its] other creative choices left me annoyed.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2022

Persuasion hamstrings Austen's lyrical reflections and snappy exchanges with deadened modern jargon in a blatant attempt to remould the story as befits Netflix's demographic pandering.

Persuasion never gets to truly take off because it is trying to be both modern and period. There is far too much winking towards the camera.

Full Review | Aug 26, 2022

There’s nothing wrong with updating Austen, but this isn’t so much updating the book as performing a gut renovation.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 24, 2022

a revolutionary and entirely charming new interpretation of the material.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 4, 2022

[W]ith sincere apologies to the Austenheads out there, I enjoyed it well enough. Though I don’t expect I’ll be able to persuade you.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 4, 2022

Like one modern-day Austen romantic lead, I like Persuasion very much just as it is.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2022

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‘Persuasion’ Review: The Present Intrudes Into the Past

Dakota Johnson smirks her way through a Netflix adaptation of the rekindled romance in Jane Austen’s last novel, our critic writes.

• Share full article

By Teo Bugbee

The great irony of this new, not-quite-modernized adaptation of Jane Austen’s final novel, “Persuasion,” is that it communicates its tense relationship to its 19th-century source material in a repressed, passive-aggressive manner — an approach oddly suited to Austen’s trenchant view of society. The film doesn’t take the creative leap to transpose the beloved story in the present day. Instead, in curiously excruciating fashion, the director, screenwriters, and star imply their discomfort with Georgian-era social norms from within the novel’s period setting.

Both the film and the novel begin in the early 1800s, as the story’s heroine, Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson), visits her sister Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce) in the English countryside, after their father squandered the family savings. Anne is an unmarried woman who is fortunate to be respected — or, at least, perceived as useful — by her blue-blooded relations. But in direct addresses to the camera, Anne admits that she is haunted by the memory of a love affair she was persuaded to end with an enterprising but fortuneless sailor, Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis).

Now Anne is alone, and her regrets only grow when Wentworth returns to the country as a wealthy naval captain. He’s eager to find a wife, and if his sights are first set on Anne’s lively sister-in-law Louisa (Nia Towle), his attention always seems to wander back to Anne.

For this story of rekindled romance, the film summons the handsome appointments expected for a big-budget period drama. There are extravagant mansions, brocaded costumes and magnificent vistas. But there is a crisis of contemporaneity at the heart of this pretty adaptation, and the trouble begins with its presentation of its heroine.

Johnson, wearing smoky eye shadow and pink lipstick, displays the confident appeal of a celebrity sharing her secrets with the audience. Her smile reads as a smirk. The incongruous bravado of her performance is mirrored by the film’s script, written by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, which peppers lines from the novel with meme-ish truisms like, “Now we are worse than exes. We’re friends.”

The contrast between the modernized dialogue and Austen’s period-appropriate language only makes both styles seem more mannered. The story’s heroine, its dialogue and even its themes of regret and loneliness seem to be swallowed up by the need to maintain an appearance of contemporary cheek.

For fans of Austen’s novel, it’s hard to imagine the director Carrie Cracknell’s version providing a sense of ease or escapism. Instead, the unbearable tension between past and present serves as a disarmingly naked window into the anxieties of current Hollywood filmmaking. Better to have the whole movie be a skeptical, uncertain affair than to risk presenting a pre-feminist heroine who lacks confidence.

Persuasion Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

Persuasion (2022) Review

15 Jul 2022

Persuasion (2022)

One of many fabrications of Netflix’s take on Persuasion is a scene in which our heroine, Anne Elliot ( Dakota Johnson ), describes a dream. In it, Anne finds herself caught in the arms of an octopus before realising that the tentacles belong to her — that she is “sucking my own face”. One wonders if such a phrase would ever have passed the lips of Austen, who occupies pride of place in the pantheon of great English writers.

The description of Anne’s hentai fantasy, along with discussions of “exes” and “tens”, border on the sacrilegious. It is an insult to credit this film as an adaptation of Austen’s Persuasion , for beyond character and place names, the screenplay, by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, bears only the shallowest resemblance to that work. What Netflix has created is a version of Austen for the Bridgerton viewer, a candified reality show dressed in Regency clothing.

At the heart of this bastardisation is Dakota Johnson, who renders Anne a modern, melancholic bitch à la Fleabag (note the constant eye-flicks to camera). Her Anne guzzles red wine from the bottle, somehow listens to Beethoven in her room, and uses modern Millennial vernacular in a manner that quickly grates.

It’s a shame such esteemed actors have to work with this Mills & Boon version of Austen’s work.

Her Wentworth hardly finds the embodiment of charisma in Cosmo Jarvis . He pales next to the effervescent charms of Henry Golding as Anne’s cousin and secondary suitor, whose presence is as refreshing as the sea breeze lapping the coast of Lyme Regis. He seems to be the only person on set who has actually read a word of Austen.

Director Carrie Cracknell, making her film debut after a long career in theatre, seems quite content to have her cast standing or sitting about. While there are some pleasant shots of British beaches, it is a shame that the final stages of Persuasion neglect to show off Bath’s architecture more. To not make proper use of Austen’s former home city seems lazy, another misunderstanding of the material.

Cracknell has said that she wanted a more diverse cast than previous adaptations, and it is good to see her bringing theatrical, colour-blind casting to a period drama. Yet unlike Armando Iannucci ’s The Personal History Of David Copperfield , for example, which cast Dev Patel in the lead, the non-white cast are uncomfortably relegated to the fringes of the scenery.

Of the supporting cast, Richard E. Grant seems to have mistaken Austen for Oscar Wilde in his pantomime rendition of Anne’s father, while Nikki Amuka-Bird is given a much-reduced version of Lady Russell, who takes cougar tours of Europe. It’s a shame such esteemed actors have to work with this Mills & Boon version of Austen’s work.

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Jane Austen completed the manuscript for “ Persuasion ” in 1816, the year before her death. But even then, more than 200 years ago, she anticipated the conversation Hollywood is having today, putting these words into Captain Harville’s mouth: “I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.”

Anne Elliot — bright, heartbroken and, at the ripe old age of 28, facing the risk of lifelong spinsterhood — naturally agrees, not to Harville’s point that it is woman’s nature (more than man’s) to forget those they’ve loved before, but to the fact that “the pen has been in [men’s] hands,” and thus, the history of literature betrays a gender bias. Two centuries later, the world is still struggling to even that balance, and no studio seems more committed than Netflix to giving women a chance to control their narrative.

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While original works are welcome, Austen makes an obvious choice for female directors to adapt (certainly more than “Dangerous Liaisons,” which gets a “Clueless”-y contemporary makeover from the streamer this week as well). “Persuasion” is a fine piece of material to work from, but British stage director Carrie Cracknell has gone and done a strange thing with the book: She has tried to modernize it, borrowing heavily from “Fleabag” (with its fourth-wall-breaking gimmicks) and “Emma.” (in all its symmetrically framed, Wes Anderson-indebted cute-itude), while casting a free-spirited, fully liberated American star, Dakota Johnson , as Anne — all of which strips the novel of its core tension.

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You see, “Persuasion” is a curious romance in that, for contemporary audiences, there’s nothing really keeping its two lovers apart. Not anymore, at least. Some years ago, Wentworth — “a sailor without rank or fortune,” played by ruggedly handsome Cosmo Jarvis (“Lady Macbeth”) — proposed to Anne, and she accepted, but her aristocratic family disapproved of the union, and she was persuaded to break the engagement. Flash forward to the present (Austen’s present, that is, of 1816), and the situation is changing.

Anne’s unashamedly conceited father, Sir Walter (Richard E. Grant, a vainglorious hoot), must rent the family estate, Kellynch Hall, reintroducing the man for whom Anne’s heart still throbs to their circle — only now, Wentworth is an officer of sufficient fortune to merit her hand. Certain nuances of class and social station still stand in their way, but few among the movie’s Netflix viewers will appreciate such obstacles. (But will they prefer modern flourishes, like the “playlist” of sheet music Wentworth has made for her, or her labeling of younger sister Mary as a “total narcissist”?)

For Cracknell’s purposes, the trouble is that neither character is sure the other still feels the love they once shared, and so we wait the requisite 100 minutes for them to profess their feelings and get on with the wedding that neatly ties up all of Austen’s books. With this novel, however, she made abundantly clear that English marriages in Georgian times were not about feelings; they were social contracts designed to shore up a family’s wealth and position. When emotion and advantage align, however, where’s the conflict?

Sharing credit, screenwriters Alice Victoria Winslow and Ron Bass transform their heroine into something far different from what Austen described — or from what previous screen adaptations imagined (she was played with aching understatement by Sally Hawkins and Amanda Root in the 1995 and 2007 British TV versions).

In Austen’s words, “Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but her bloom had vanished early.” She is now “faded and thin,” the most compliant of Walter’s daughters, whereas Johnson appears to be at the peak of her powers (she’s simultaneously rocking the MILF role in “Cha Cha Real Smooth” on Apple TV+). Nothing against the very gifted Johnson, but she is not the right actor for this role, and she’s been entirely misdirected.

Cracknell approaches the project with confidence and a clear (if clearly derivative) vision. Her compositions are striking and swooningly romantic at times, though she has an odd sense of her protagonist: Anne likes her wine, gulping glassfuls of red; she carries a pet rabbit as a prop, and depressively mopes about sets with pastel walls and ugly oil paintings in ornate gold frames. In the novel, Anne’s sense of soft-spoken propriety prolongs her misery, whereas here, she’s a sharp and unfiltered narrator, delivering biting judgments of her family throughout. She regularly turns directly to the camera and throws audiences a complicit glance, as if to say, “See what I mean?” or “Can you believe these people?”

And yet, despite this overtly disobedient streak, she’s corseted by all the old-timey social conventions at play, which include sitting idly by while 19-year-old sister-in-law Louisa (Nia Towle) openly flirts with Wentworth, and entertaining a rival proposal from distant relative William Elliot ( Henry Golding ). The Anne we meet in this movie wouldn’t hold her tongue while such things happened. So what is she waiting for? An apology from Wentworth? It was she who rejected his earlier offer. Perhaps the mind can be persuaded of reasons to reject true love, as Anne was all those years ago, but in the end (to quote not Austen, but Emily Dickinson), the heart wants what it wants.

“Persuasion” is now streaming on Netflix.

Reviewed on Netflix, July 7, 2022. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 107 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) A Netflix release of a Mad Chance, Fourth & Twenty Eight Films, MRC Film production, in association with Bisous Pictures. Producers: Andrew Lazar, Christina Weiss Lurie. Executive producers: Elizabeth Cantillon, Michael Constable, David Fliegel.
• Crew: Director: Carrie Cracknell. Writers: Alice Victoria Winslow, Ron Bass.
• With: Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Richard E. Grant, Henry Golding.

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‘Persuasion’ Review: An Effervescent Dakota Johnson Gives Jane Austen Drama a Cheeky Retelling

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Jane Austen knew a thing or two about complicated women and the way they move through the world. The author’s iconic bibliography — from “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” to “Sense and Sensibility,” and those are the just the English class curriculum bangers — has always hinged on indelible heroines and their Regency-era attempts to get their lives in order. These stories are both beholden to their time and place and  undeniably universal in their concerns and charms.

Austen’s books have inspired all manner of adaptations on both stage and screen, from the faithful (Ang Lee’s luminous “Sense and Sensibility”) to the lightly loosened ( hello , iconic BBC series version of “Pride and Prejudice,” infamous for its depiction of Mark Darcy as a naughty swimmer) and even the straight-up free-wheeling (“Bridget Jones’s Diary”) to the mostly inane (“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”). Austen’s books incisively depict a specific time in British life (mostly the life lived by the rich, the white, the privileged), but her keen understanding of human interactions and desires can happily be transplanted to a range of stories.

So, what then of Carrie Cracknell’s fizzy “ Persuasion ,” which attempts to modernize one of Austen’s sadder stories through casting, scripting, even hair and makeup, but does all that while also still being set in Regency-era England? Tonally similar to Autumn de Wilde’s sprightly (and critically lauded) “Emma,” the first-time filmmaker’s cheeky and original debut seems to have been the victim of some messy marketing. The final product is, yes, fun and contemporary, but also suffused with the deep longing of its heroine, Anne Elliot ( Dakota Johnson , game as anyone to bridge seemingly disparate tones).

The film’s first trailer wasn’t roundly greeted with excitement, as many watchers (presumably hardcore Austen fans who have never once enjoyed the pleasures of something perfect like “Clueless”) took it to task for being too modern, too silly, too “Bridget Jones does Regency cosplay.” How very lucky we are then that one trailer, just mere minutes of a film, is not an entire feature.

Scripted by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, this “Persuasion” does indeed have plenty of modern, chatty flourishes (yes, Anne does tell us she’s “single and thriving,” and later does refer to her hunky unrequited love as her “ex”), and it features a number of positively Bridget Jones-esque sequences that see Anne crying, drinking, crying, drinking, etc., but they all serve one essential purpose: to get us inside Anne’s heart. Lauded playwright Cracknell wanted to loosen up this Austen, and that means everything from literally  undoing Anne’s hair and unfussing her clothes, to also figuratively bringing the audience closer to her by treating her like, well, any sort of woman.

Anne’s heart is broken, and has been for many years (eight, specifically, as she’ll tell anyone who really asks), and while we’re not used to seeing our Austen heroines so open, that doesn’t mean they never were. The rigid social constraints of the Regency era have certainly made for some great romances — remember when Joe Wright’s “Pride and Prejudice” managed to make a  gripped hand  the sexiest thing of that cinematic year? — but the pleasure of feeling closer to Anne when she’s at her most human can’t be overstated.

Johnson, who adopts a mostly-OK English accent for the role, routinely breaks the fourth wall to let us further into her life. There’s a bit of “Office” style mugging at play here, particularly when her outrageous family (including an underused Richard E. Grant as the wild Sir Walter Elliot) gets going, but it affords a level of intimacy that can be taken for granted in books and is harder to fake in movies.

Other modern touches, including color-conscious casting (see: Henry Golding as her foppish cousin, Nikki Amuka-Bird as her smart godmother, and Ben Bailey Smith as her stalwart brother-in-law) are still more exciting. And while “Persuasion” is one of Austen’s more serious novels, comedic performances from Lydia Rose Pewley (as the dimly scheming Lady Penelope) and Mia McKenna-Bruce (as Anne’s outrageously immature sister) add spice to the feature. (The film’s lush settings and Stuart Earl’s sweeping score are all classic Austen adaptation, and just lovely.)

But that doesn’t mean that this “Persuasion” isn’t suffused with the essential emotion of Austen’s novel: that Anne, so headstrong and so self-possessed, was “persuaded” by her family to send her poor suitor Frederick Wentworth (a taciturn, but still appealing Cosmo Jarvis) packing and has still not gotten over it. And while life has conspired to keep them apart, when it pushes them back together, it forces Anne (and Frederick) to confront their own shortcomings (and maybe even love them).

That deep emotion may be occasionally obscured by some of the film’s lighter elements — including the kinds of misunderstandings and misreadings, garbled gossip, half-truths, and bald-faced lies audiences might be more used to in the fizzy land of “Emma,” but still find some great joys here — but by the time Cracknell, Johnson, and Jarvis meet the film’s heart-stopping conclusion, it feels like pure Austen, and knows it.

“Persuasion” will start streaming on Netflix on Friday, July 22.

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Film Review: ‘Persuasion’ Starring Dakota Johnson

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“He’s a 10,” the leading lady enthuses to an older woman about a young man she fancies in this latest screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s final novel — and if that line doesn’t throw you for at least a small loop, there are other mightily anachronistic ingredients in this new Persuasion that may well strike Austen fans, among others, as more than a tad unpersuasive. Breaking down and eradicating period niceties and replacing them with more modern attitudes and phraseology appears to be the central agenda for prominent British theater director Carrie Cracknell in her feature film debut, and while it’s easy to resist some of the cheap-shot modern dialogue that runs through the adaptation by old pro Ron Bass and writer-actress Alice Victoria Winslow, it also shouldn’t be impossible to admit that, since we already have Roger Michell’s outstanding 1995 film adaptation, a cheeky redo might also be welcome, at least for a short stay.

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This Netflix film follows in the recent footsteps of Julia Quinn’s eight massively successful Bridgerton books, which were published between 2000-2006. These became the basis for the streamer’s very popular television series of 2020, which reset the rules of the British period melodrama by casting actors of a variety of hues in customarily white roles. Following suit in the same vein with new Austen projects have been the Regency-set Mr. Malcolm’s List , a very loosely based adaptation of Pride and Prejudice , a book that even more freely inspired Hulu’s current gay-slanted attraction Fire Island . This Persuasion similarly suggests that shaking up the genre with ahistorical moves in casting and dialogue, as well as with confidential, breaking-the-fourth-wall remarks, need not necessarily distract from the melodramatic fun and may even bump it up at times. For the moment, anyway, Merchant Ivory-style adaptations of venerable old titles may only be seen, however respectfully, in the rear-view mirror.

“I almost got married once,” Anne Elliott (a spirited and persuasive Dakota Johnson ) wistfully admits at the outset, self-deprecatingly adding that, at the “advanced” age of 27, “I’m waiting to fall in love.” In further confidences quickly disclosed, she reveals that Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) and her mother are the only people who ever understood her, but that Wentworth—the “10” in question—“is a ship that has sailed,” literally so, as it turns out, as he has since been in the navy.

Evidently once rather well off, what remains of the Elliott family lives at Kellynch Hall, which is now beyond their means. This is a situation about which the surpassingly vain head of the family, Sir Walter (the ever-welcome Richard E. Grant), seemingly intends to do nothing; “What good is anything if you have to earn it?” he disdainfully complains. This being Austen, seldom does a half-minute go by without some lively banter and repartee, as Anne laments her current position in life with wit and no self-pity. But did you ever imagine that, on a country stroll with company, a Jane Austen character would abruptly announce her suddenly desperate need to relieve herself by the side of the path? Whether this represents progress or not will be left to history to decide.

So, indeed, times have changed in how Olde England is to be depicted in the cinema. But however one might chafe at some of the liberties taken, this adaptation is so fundamentally lively and playful that it would seem churlish to complain too mightily; many great authors have endured far worse at the hands of less talented screenwriters and directors who have taken their tasks very seriously, so perhaps it’s not such a dreadful literary trespass for filmmakers to have a little irreverent fun with Austen rather than to maintain absolute and straight-faced fidelity.

The gist of the drama lies in whether Anne will ever be able to fall in love again or might already have missed her chance (Austen, it may be remembered, never married, but was once briefly engaged—at 27). As fate, or Austen, would have it, Wentworth’s older sister Elizabeth (Yolanda Kettle) is currently ensconced at Kellynch Hall, which means that, for better or worse, the undercurrents of feeling and possibilities of reviving the romance will be undeniable. Then there is Anne’s self-dramatizing younger sister Mary Musgrove (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird), who is the one who convinced Anne not to marry Frederick in the first place. In his sporadic appearances, Jarvis unquestionably cuts an extremely handsome figure, but he doesn’t actually have all that much to do, so it’s impossible to evaluate his screen potential from this venture.

You can practically hear director Cracknell cracking the whip on the actors to keep up the pace, to the extent that there’s scarcely a leisurely moment to be found in this propulsive, if somewhat scattershot and sometimes misguided, entertainment. At the very least, there is the constant welcome presence of Johnson, who gamely soldiers through the inspired and sometimes misguided aspects of this production and keeps it more or less on track. It’s unfaithful fun.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Drama , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot; Cosmo Jarvis as Captain Frederick Wentworth; Henry Golding as Mr. William Elliot; Richard E. Grant as Sir Walter Elliot; Yolanda Kettle as Elizabeth Elliot; Mia McKenna-Bruce as Mary Elliot Musgrove; Ben Bailey Smith as Charles Musgrove; Nia Towle as Louisa Musgrove; Izuka Hoyle as Henrietta Musgrove; Lydia Rose Bewley as Penelope Clay; Afolabi Alli as Captain Benwick; Edward Bluemel as Captain Harville; Jenny Rainsford as Mrs. Harville; Nikki Amuka-Bird as Lady Russell

Home Release Date

• July 15, 2022
• Carrie Cracknell

Distributor

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Who needs romance when you have family ?

Then again, most families aren’t as exasperating as Anne Elliot’s.

Elizabeth, Anne’s elder sister, is a “celebrated beauty and Somerset’s most fashion-forward luminary.” Anne’s younger sister, Mary, is a complete narcissist married to Charles Musgrove, heir to the “superior” Uppercross estate.

Sir Walter Elliot, their father, is the “sole object” of his own warmest respect and devotion. And the only thing he likes more than his own reflection is spending money—even when there’s none left to spend.

Anne would love to escape. But according to her, there are only two ways to do so: marriage or death .

Unfortunately, Anne doesn’t see either option in her near future. Eight years ago, she was persuaded not to accept Frederick Wentworth’s offer of marriage because of his lack of rank or fortune.

She’s been told to “abandon all hope” regarding Wentworth. But Anne can’t help herself. She still holds a torch for the young sailor, who has since gained both rank and fortune, rendering her family’s original argument against the match null.

Wentworth hasn’t written Anne since she broke his heart—not that she blames him—but he also hasn’t married anyone else. So, as Anne says, “Hope springs eternal.”

Especially since Wentworth is visiting Somerset for the summer.

Positive Elements

Anne and Wentworth’s reunion is an awkward one, and they almost act like strangers. Anne even notes that Wentworth’s “cold politeness and ceremonious grace” are worse than “open hostility.” However, the pair eventually makes amends, forgiving each other for past wrongs and agreeing to be friends.

Although Anne’s family can be unbearable, she has good friends. Mary’s sisters-in-law, Louisa and Henrietta, adore Anne and frequently praise her many virtues and talents. (And Anne’s better treatment of their mutual nephews than the boys’ own mother doesn’t go unnoticed.) When someone talks poorly of Anne behind her back, Louisa defends her. And later, when Louisa becomes interested in Wentworth, she consults Anne first to make sure Anne won’t be hurt if Louisa pursues him for herself.

Lady Russell, the best friend of Anne’s late mother, cares for Anne after a motherly fashion, offering insight and helpful advice. She apologizes for the misery she inadvertently caused Anne by telling her not to marry Wentworth when he was poor. She explains she was trying to protect Anne and encourages her to find love elsewhere (and from someone who will fight for her). And Anne reassures Lady Russell that she’s more upset with herself for being persuaded than she is at anyone else for doing the persuading.

We hear that marriage is, unfortunately, usually transactional for women. However, Anne often shuts down this type of thinking. She says a woman without a husband is not a problem to be solved. She asks a man to call her a woman instead of a “creature.” She advises several men to trust their future wives with managing their own emotions. And Wentworth is praised for being a man who actually listens when women speak. He also comments on the lack of career options for women (which were limited in English Georgian society) and apologizes for overstepping his bounds in “defense” of a woman’s honor.

As I mentioned in the introduction, Mary is deeply narcissistic. Luckily (and perhaps at the behest of her husband), she begins to consider the feelings of others as the film goes on. In “shockingly self-aware” moments, she recognizes that people don’t always want to spend time with her since she dominates the conversation.

When Wentworth practically ignores Anne, Mary at least tries to stand up for her sister. And by the film’s end, at the recommendation of her doctor, Mary works to embrace an attitude of gratefulness, especially when things don’t go exactly the way she wants them to.

We hear that a man rescued a beached whale. Anne is kind to a grieving character.

Spiritual Elements

Two people talk about the “universe’s” plan. A man believes his noble rank was given to him by God. People wed in a church. Anne shows a note passed in church that says “BORED!”

Sexual & Romantic Content

Couples kiss and cuddle.

We occasionally see Anne in a bath from the shoulders up. Women sometimes wear dresses bearing cleavage. A woman says she doesn’t want someone else’s “naked skin” touching her bedsheets while she is out of town. Anne squats and adjusts her skirts to use the bathroom in the forest but stops when she notices people nearby (and we see nothing).

A woman makes a joke about marital infidelity. After proposing marriage to one woman, a man then makes out with another. (The first woman had not accepted his offer yet and wasn’t upset when she discovered his duplicity, since she was in love with another man.) A different man feels guilty for leading someone on.

Lady Russell, who is a widow, says she hasn’t remarried because she prefers her own company. However, she says she goes on “European tours” when she gets lonely (and a pamphlet describing these tours as “elegant and discreet” indicates that the tours are sexual in nature). A man makes some sexual innuendos.

Louisa attempts to flirt with Wentworth by jumping from some stairs into his arms. She then climbs to a higher stair and attempts it a second time with disastrous results…

Violent Content

… Wentworth fails to catch her, and she gets a concussion from hitting her head in the fall (though she later makes a full, if slow, recovery). We hear that a young boy broke his arm after falling from a tree and later see him in a sling. Anne trips and injures her foot. Wentworth admits he put himself in dangerous situations while serving in the Navy because he wanted to distract himself from his heartbreak. We hear that a man’s fiancée died while he was at sea, just before they were set to be married. It’s said that Sir Elliot threw a tray of canapés across the room when his nephew refused to marry his daughter.

Crude or Profane Language

None, but a woman says, “What in God’s name?”

Drug & Alcohol Content

People drink throughout the film at social events and dinners. However, Anne drinks much more than others (and she pseudo-admits to using alcohol as a coping mechanism for her heartbreak). At one point, Anne gets drunk, shouts at Wentworth and then accidentally spills oil all over herself. In another scene, we see her hungover after a night of heavy drinking. She also hides the fact that she is taking a full bottle of wine up to her room for herself.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Elizabeth and Sir Elliot are terrible to Anne. They make rude comments about her appearance. And their constant put-downs often serve to bolster their own vanities. (They admit the only reason they included her in an article about the family was so that people wouldn’t think she had died.)

When the Elliots are forced to vacate their home (due to overspending) and rent it out to others, they instruct Anne to use itchy bed linens and ban anyone from entering the gardens so the new tenants can’t enjoy themselves. When Anne suggests that reputation is built on honesty, integrity, compassion and accepting responsibility for the welfare of others, they scoff and voice their disdain for giving to charities. And later, they press themselves upon some distant (but noble) relations to make themselves look good.

Although Mary begins working more on her character near the film’s end, she’s still a deeply selfish person. She invents a number of ailments to garner pity from her friends, which then double as an excuse to escape the simplest of tasks. Then, when she does rally herself to, say, stay with an ill friend, she makes herself out to be the hero so as to earn the admiration of the people around her. At one point, she manipulates Anne into staying with her injured son because she is “an empath” and would take his suffering upon herself too strongly. And it’s clear that while she enjoys the status of being married, she hates being a mother (and is neglectful of her children).

While vying for a woman’s attention, two men exchange thinly veiled insults and posture towards each other to appear the greater man. Mr. Elliot tricks his uncle into believing that he never insulted him in the past (even though the insults were made directly to Sir Elliot). He accomplishes this by pretending to be interested in marrying Elizabeth. He then admits to Anne that he has no desire to marry Elizabeth but simply wants to stop Sir Elliot from remarrying and potentially siring a son (who would then usurp Mr. Elliot as heir).

Louisa tells Anne that she should pretend to be dumb and ignore Wentworth in order to earn his affections—and that she shouldn’t “be herself” until at least the second year of marriage. Though Anne brushes this off, Louisa uses these tactics herself later on.

Some parents tactlessly pry to find out if a man is marriage-minded. While trying to wound Wentworth, Anne blurts out that Mary’s husband, Charles, originally wanted to marry Anne . And later, we hear that Charles’ family wishes he had.

Someone jokes about flatulence. A woman says she loves gossip.

Who needs romance when you have family? Well, Anne Elliot for one.

If Anne had ignored her family’s prejudices when Wentworth first proposed, she might have saved herself eight years of heartache. But Anne made her choices, and she had to live with the consequences of those choices.

However, Anne also learned something from the experience. She learned how to handle her family’s eccentricities and judgement. Not that her sisters’ degrading remarks still don’t bite, but perhaps they don’t cut quite as deep.

And who’s to say that if Anne had accepted Wentworth’s proposal the first time around that things would have ended happily ever after? Certainly by waiting a few years, Wentworth was able to secure a better social and economical status. Perhaps the wait also helped the couple to develop some sense and sensibility, to put pride and prejudices aside.

But whatever the case, love prevailed, leading to not just one but four happy marriages by film’s end.

Families wanting to watch Persuasion , which is based on the Jane Austen novel, will find that it’s about as squeaky clean as the book was.

Anything noted in the Negative Comments section is recognized as bad behavior in the film as well. In fact, the crudest thing to notate is a joke about infidelity and a widow’s comments about taking European tours for “company.” When that’s as “bad” as things ever get, you know you’ve got a period piece drama that’s as counterculturally good as almost anything you’ll find at the theater today.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Persuasion film review — the Netflixification of Jane Austen

Dakota johnson stars in persuasion aka emily in the 18th century..

What to Watch Verdict

Bears absolutely no resemblance to Austen's classic novel but it's watchable enough if you can put the source material out of your head...

* Anne's outrageously self-absorbed family — Mia McKenna-Bruce (as Mary Musgrove), Yolanda Kettle (as Elizabeth Eliott) and Richard E. Grant (as Sir Walter Elliot)

* Henry Golding in devilish form (as Mr. Elliot)

* the script

* the rabbit (why tho?)

* the Laurel and Hardy-esque pratfalls

* should carry a health warning if you love Austen's classic

Netflix has done an admirable job of single-handedly bringing back the rom-com to our screens. A genre that was pretty much considered dead and buried was revived with the successes of the teen rom-coms ( To All The Boys trilogy, The Kissing Booth trilogy, The Perfect Date ), swiftly on their heels came the fish-out-of-water rom-com Falling Inn Love , the friends-reunited rom-com Always Be My Maybe , the workplace rom-com ( Set It Up ) and the Christmas rom-coms, Love Hard, Single All the Way amongst many others (cutting into Hallmark’s territory). All of these follow a clearly identifiable (and successful) format: diverse casts, lavish sets, colorful quirky costume design, photogenic leads and snappy Gen Z/Millennial dialogue.

And after the rip-roaring success of the period drama adaptation Bridgerton, it was only a matter of time before the Netflix originals dept came for Austen, the Queen of Regency romance.

Unfortunately, they’ve picked the least suitable of Austen’s books to give the quirky, sassy rom-com treatment to. Persuasion (the book) is a rather somber look at what it was like to be a woman in the 18th century — entirely defined by your marital status. You were either marriage material or stranded on the shelf. If like protagonist Anne Elliot — the quiet people-pleasing heroine — you made a mistake and turned down the love of your life to please your snobbish (and ungrateful) family you’d find yourself a social outcast overlooked and invisible. By 18th-century standards, Anne is a middle-aged woman. She is worn down by loss and longing, faded and downcast.

Netflix doesn’t let the simple matter of a wistful, nuanced story get in the way of its successful formula. They just ignore or throw out anything that didn’t match the standard rom-com tropes (pretty much everything apart from the storyline structure and Sir Walter Elliot’s silliness). They cast gorgeous, youthful California native Dakota Johnson as Anne (remember: faded, quiet, middle-aged) and made her do witty asides to camera (like Fleabag), swill bottles of wine and take bubble baths (Bridget Jones) at every opportunity. Add super-hot actors, beautiful locations and cool costumes (from every time period) into the mix, “tweak” the characters and rewrite Austen’s exquisite words into Valley Girl Goop-isms. Hey, presto, you have a movie — it’s Emily in the Eighteenth Century ! It makes you wonder why (as so many reviewers have asked ) they picked Persuasion at all if they were going to jettison so much of what actually makes it Persuasion . 

Whether you like this version will probably depend on how much you like Netflix ’s rom-com formula and how little you care about/know Austen’s original work. There are a tiny few who like both versions. For the most part, however, people who love the novel’s Anne Elliot and Austen’s beautiful words will find the archly-knowing, pratfalling, wine-swilling, bunny-stroking Anne 2.0 hard to stomach. 

Taken on its own terms, though, it’s pretty amusing. Anne’s family (especially Richard E. Grant) is fabulously self-absorbed, Wentworth is suitably lovelorn and Henry Golding — who should have had much more screen time is wonderfully dastardly as Mr. Elliot. It’s primary colors rather than shades of meaning but watchable enough (as long as you can sever all ties with the source material.)

I've worked in content strategy, editorial and audience development for leading film and TV companies for over 15 years. Always fascinated by digital trends, I'm currently obsessed with FilmTok. You can also find me extolling the virtues of classic TV shows like Fringe, Smallville and The West Wing, romance movies, Wong Kar Wei's back catalogue and anything that involves Monty Don/Gardener's World.

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Persuasion review: Jane Austen gets reworked for the Instagram age, and suffers for it

The period details remain, but the fourth wall bends and breaks in Netflix's too-cute update.

We are living in the age of Revisionist Jane, a truth universally acknowledged by the cascade of Austen adaptions pumped out by studios and streaming services with almost head-spinning frequency over the last few decades. So far, there doesn't seem to be an end to the ways her timeless romances can be tweaked and parlayed by the Hollywood machine. So why does Persuasion (on Netflix July 15) feel more like blasphemy than all the fizzy Fire Island updates and Beverly Hills teens that preceded it?

The book's Regency-era costumes and country manors at least arrive intact, and Dakota Johnson , her hair prettily curled and cadences polished, makes for a vivacious Anne Elliot: twentysomething spinster, neglected middle daughter of the English aristocracy, lover of novels and long walks. Then, alas, she starts talking: Directly to the camera, as frequently and casually as Fleabag , or between swigs of Merlot, while throwing off lines like "I'm single and thriving ." (The movie stops just short of giving her one of those "Wine Flies When You're Having Fun" or "Corks Are for Quitters" throw pillows, which seems like a remarkable act of self-restraint considering what follows.)

Anne has a father, a dimwitted peacock played by the great Richard E. Grant , and two insufferable sisters, the oblivious snob Elizabeth (Yolanda Kettle) and peevish Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce), both monuments to Kardashian self-absorption. She also once had a true love, naval officer Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), but he had no money or prospects, so she refused his proposal on the advice of her late mother's best friend, the well-meaning Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird). Seven years later, he returns, and so do the feelings between them — along with several competitors for their respective affections, including a dashing, disreputable cousin ( Crazy Rich Asians ' Henry Golding ) and the luminous ingenue Louisa (Nia Towle).

This is all essentially true to the basic premise of Persuasion , Austen's last completed novel, though the script veers off from there in a flurry of fourth-wall breaks and rom-com familiarity: When Wentworth finds out that Anne was once proposed to by her future brother-in-law before he married Mary, it's not because a relative tells him but because Anne blurts it out drunk at the dinner table; going through old keepsakes, she refers to a pile of musical scores as "a playlist he made me." Certain secondary roles have intriguing edges, then get nudged so far into satire that they just become silly — like Golding's William, which has the dapper actor essentially playing a tail-coated contestant on F-Boy Island .

Jarvis ( Lady Macbeth ) makes for a dashing hero with his die-cut jawline and Byronic sweep of hair, and Johnson is so naturally charming she nearly sells the idea of an Anne more suited to a high-concept dating show than the ball gowns and drawing rooms of Regency England. The script, by Ronald Bass ( Rain Man , Waiting to Exhale ) and Alice Victoria Winslow, crackles and pops when it's not trying so hard to lather every line of dialogue in Tiktok zingers and bitchy bits of flair. (When one character smirks, "It is often said that if you're a five in London, you're a 10 in Bath," a kitten dies somewhere.)

It's never really clear why director Carrie Cracknell, whose resumé is primarily in British theater, felt compelled to portray the setting so faithfully and with such high production values — some artistic debt certainly seems owed to the rolling moors and sun-dazzled closeups of Joe Wright's 2005 Pride & Prejudice — but put so little trust in the actual text, or at least in her viewer. She might have gone the way of Wright's soulful update, or even that of Autumn de Wilde, whose 2020 Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy looked like candy but retained the wit and spirit of the book's original dialogue. Instead, this Persuasion chooses to wear its source material like a thin disposable skin, discarding many of the vital organs (brain, heart) and most ideas of subtlety as it goes. Austen may be immortal, but she's not inexhaustible; maybe it's time to tell another story and let her rest in peace. Grade: C+

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Syrie James

Comparing the jane austen’s persuasion movie versions.

Photo credits: 1995 Persuasion/Sony Pictures, 2007 Persuasion/BBC, 2022 Persuasion/Netflix

Which film version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion is best?

There have been a number of movie adaptations of Jane Austen’s Persuasion including a new one from Netflix, and it’s always a thrill to see Austen’s work adapted for the screen.

Persuasion , Jane Austen’s last completed work, is one of my favorite novels. The story of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth’s second chance at love is a heart-melting romance that epitomizes Jane Austen’s gift for storytelling.

I’m going to compare the last three movie versions of Persuasion and reveal my favorite at the end of this post … where you can also enter my Persuasion giveaway!

PERSUASION : THE STORY

In Persuasion , Anne Elliot, a baronet’s daughter, is a 27-year-old spinster (gasp!) who 8 years ago was persuaded by a family friend to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a Royal Navy sailor who had nothing but charm to recommend him (ie. no fortune or prospects). As the story opens, Anne has never gotten over her love for Wentworth and has come to deeply regret that decision. Anne’s narcissistic father has run through the family fortune and the Elliots are forced to “retrench” and rent out the family estate, Kellynch Hall.

Wentworth returns from sea, now a rich Navy captain looking for a wife. He and Anne are thrown together in various circumstances that take us from the lush English countryside to coastal Lyme Regis to the city of Bath, where we wonder: will the quiet put-upon Anne ever get the courage to speak up for herself? Will she be seduced by the charms of her attentive cousin William Elliot? Will Wentworth marry the lovely Louisa, or will he get over his heartbreak and recognize Anne’s true worth?

If you know Jane Austen, you know the answer to the last question; but to watch the drama play out is to marvel at Austen’s skill at tugging at our emotions and layering in unexpected twists and turns.

Now let’s take a look at the last three movie versions of Persuasion :

1995 PERSUASION

1995 PERSUASION/ Sony Pictures Classics

The most faithful adaptation to the source material, this version from Sony Pictures has become a beloved classic. Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds are incandescent in their portrayals of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth. We feel the depth of their unspoken emotions in every encounter.

It is enchanting to watch Amanda Root’s Anne blossom over the course of the film from a place of quiet suffering and regret to a strong woman who becomes increasingly vibrant and self-assured. (At times, though, Anne’s a bit too quiet. I found myself wanting to shout at the screen, “Anne! Just say something, will you?!”) Ciaran Hinds delivers a mesmerizing and mature performance as Wentworth; I believe that this man has commanded a naval vessel and that he’s never stopped loving Anne, even though he has tried to forget her.

The costumes are pitch-perfect and sumptuous, from the women’s gorgeous Regency gowns and accessories to the men’s frock coats and Royal Navy uniforms. The locations and production values are gorgeous and the supporting cast is terrific. I especially enjoyed Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft, the Admiral’s wife, who expresses why she loved being at sea with her husband—a point which pays off later. This version has the best and most faithful rendition of the Mrs. Smith subplot.

The famous “letter scene” at the end (where, spoiler alert, Captain Wentworth writes Anne a letter to express his true feelings) is handled with perfection, and the ending, which reveals Anne and Wentworth’s fate (if you don’t know, you’ll have to watch!) is delightfully imagined.

2007 PERSUASION

2007 PERSUASION/ BBC

This BBC version also has exquisite production values and a melancholy, romantic tone that works effectively with Jane Austen’s story. Rupert Penry-Jones’s portrayal of Captain Wentworth is dynamic, heartfelt, and unforgettable; not only is he the most handsome of the three screen Wentworths (and it never hurts to be heart-thumpingly handsome!), he also best expresses that character’s hurt and anger over Anne’s rejection all those years ago. Sally Hawkins is equally magnificent as Anne, who is appropriately anxiety-ridden at the start and blooms before our eyes.

Although the two leads as per the novel are obliged to suffer in silence for most of the story, in this adaptation, their emotions are more visibly expressed. We feel the depth of their pain and longing with every look and breath and word, and the ending is wonderfully passionate.

Again, the supporting actors are excellent with special mention for Tobias Menzies who makes a cunning and scheming Mr. Elliot. When Hawkins writes in her diary we hear her thoughts in voice over, which is an effective device; however, she looks directly at the camera several times (a foreshadowing of the 2022 version?), which took me out of the story. The locations are wonderfully depicted. I felt as if I were there on the Cobb in Lyme Regis when Louisa Musgrove takes her infamous leap and walking the streets of Bath.

Many people have expressed displeasure with the climactic scene which has Anne racing through Bath, looking for Wentworth. I don’t mind it, because it makes sense to me that after reading the letter he wrote her, she’d go to the ends of the earth to find him. The ending adds a twist that’s not in the novel, which I found charming.

2022 PERSUASION

2022 PERSUASION/ Netflix

Netflix’s new Persuasion offers a modernized, quirky, light and fun approach . Although set in the Regency era, the dialog has anachronistic phrases sprinkled in, such as “If you’re a five in London, you’re a ten in Bath” and “I’m an empath.” Dakota Johnson’s Anne breaks the fourth wall, offers sly comments directly to the camera, weeps in the bathtub, chugs wine from a bottle, suffers pratfalls, blurts out things a lady would never say (I’m still not sure what the octopus thing was about), and is generally a hot mess.

Although this is a huge departure from the Anne that Jane Austen created, and some of these things were cringe-worthy to observe, it was entertaining. Jane Austen herself would have probably enjoyed it. The film follows the plot for the most part, is wonderfully diverse, and has beautiful locations.

Cosmo Jarvis gives us a long-suffering Captain Wentworth, but his feelings for Anne are evident from day one. To me, the whole point of Austen’s tale is that Wentworth hasn’t gotten over his broken heart, and we must wait with bated breath for him to grow and change and recognize the truth of his feelings. Similarly, although I adore Henry Golding and he makes a delightfully smarmy Mr. Elliot, all the tension and surprise is removed from that part of the storyline, because he admits up front to his dastardly intentions.

The cast is great with my favorites being Mia McKenna-Bruce as the hypochondriac monster Mary Elliot and Richard E. Grant as the comically self-admiring Sir Walter Elliot (I love it that his house is full of life-sized portraits of himself, to add to his perpetually gazing in the mirror). One of my biggest pet peeves: they changed Captain Wentworth’s letter. Why rewrite one of the most romantic letters in English literature? This is not for Austen purists but if you’re in the mood for an alternate Persuasion that might just make you laugh out loud, this version has charms of its own.

MY FAVORITE?

Jane Austen’s novels have been endlessly re-imagined in fan fiction and film and it’s a testament to Austen’s brilliant writing that it can be revised and modernized and still result in an enjoyable and heartfelt story. Which film version of Persuasion is my favorite?

It’s not an easy decision; but even though Rupert Penry-Jones will always be my favorite Wentworth, I give the honor of best Persuasion adaptation to the 1995 version, which I think best portrays the story as Jane Austen would have imagined it when she wrote it.

ENTER MY PERSUASION GIVEAWAY AT THE END OF THIS POST!

And feed your jane austen addiction.

Looking for a great summer read? If you love Jane Austen as much as I do, here are three Austen novels that I hope you’ll enjoy:

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen reveals the untold story of Jane’s romance with the mysterious gentleman said to be the love of her life. (International and USA Today bestseller, Regency World Magazine Best New Fiction)

“Tantalizing, tender, and true to the Austen mythos.” —Library Journal , starred review, Editor’s Pick

“Deserves front-runner status in the field of Austen fan-fiction and film.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen is the ultimate Janeite fantasy. In this book-within-a-book, the romantic tale from a priceless, long lost Jane Austen novel is interwoven with the story of the modern-day librarian who discovers it, only to fall for the man who could take it from her.

“A literary feast for Anglophiles …[with] an Austen-worthy ending.” —Publishers Weekly

“This richly imagined Jane Austen ‘road novel’ is such a page turner … A standout addition to the archive of Austen homages.” —Kirkus  (starred review)

Jane Austen’s First Love brings to life Jane Austen’s real-life romance with a charismatic teen over one mad, matchmaking summer, where she gains a lifetime’s worth of experience that will help make her into the literary titan she is destined to become.  ( Library Journal Editor’s Pick; 5 Best of the Year Lists)

“Based on James’s extensive research on the enigmatic Edward Taylor … this masterwork feels like a real memoir. Highly recommended.” —Historical Novel Society

“A quite delightful romance—not only a touching record of a young girl’s first experience of love, but also a funny, eventful and entertaining comedy of Regency manners … presented with affection and respect.” —Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine

ENTER MY PERSUASION GIVEAWAY!

In honor of the release of the new Persuasion movie , I’m giving away this 40-piece wooden WENTWORTH miniature puzzle from England’s National Trust, if I receive at least 40 comments on this blog post.

To enter, please leave a comment below, sharing your feelings about Persuasion —the novel or film versions. If you’ve never seen any of the adaptations, are you intrigued to watch one after reading this blog? Contest ends August 18, 2022. Open to U.S. residents only.

Thank you, dear readers. Feel free to share this blog post with your friends and on social media. I look forward to hearing from you.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider signing up to follow my blog and newsletter.

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20 Comments

I like your reasoning for selecting the 1995 version. I agree with you. I plan on watching the Netflix Persuasion on a day when I need a laugh as it will be so outrageous from what I have read. Thank you for your analysis and especially for the giveaway. The puzzle will be delightful to create during the summer hot days.

Love your writing , no matter in what context. I agree with you about the 1995 version but i am a traditionalist.. I subscribed to your newsletter. Great work!

Thank you for your summaries and analysis of the Persuasion versions most of us love (as well as the Netflix version, which I haven’t had the courage to watch yet). 1995 version is by far my favorite, and I love Ciarán Hinds as Wentworth!

I ‘love’ Ciaran Hinds full stop !! I haven’t seen his Persuasion but am sure it’s superb. I am a great fan of the Sally Hawkins / Rupert Penry-Jones version.

I have DVD copies of the first two movie adaptations of Persuasion. I also love that same 1995 one that you voted for. I have seen the last one on Netflix and was not pleased with it. I do jigsaw puzzle online daily (100 pieces usually) so I would love to win one.

The 1995 version is definitely my favorite. The prior one was not at all for me. Your writing has brought me many hours of enjoyment. Thanks for your lovely giveaway.

Have not seen any Persuasion movies, but love all 3 of your Jane Austen books!

haven’t seen it yet

I wholeheartedly agree. The 1995 Persuasion is the best! Ciaran is such an amazing actor. He is also my favorite Mr. Rochester. He does such a good job as Wentworth, hiding his feelings behind stoicism and every now and then the curtain falls and you catch a glimpse of true feelings. I enjoyed the Sally H version as well, she is one of those wonderful actresses that can display her character’s emotions in an uncomplicated way and without it feeling fake. I loved her running through the streets. Feels accurate. The most recent adaptation I didn’t hate, it was funny but also cringey at times. I had to watch it sans my Austen cap. I found Anne as a binge drinker very disrespectful to the character, so those moments were cringeworthy. But watching it as it is, without expectations or hopes of it being a faithful adaptation, I found most of it funny and entertaining (this Mary and her hypochondria needs to be a whole other movie). Hopefully this adaptation will bring new fans to the story and to Austen as well. Maybe new audiences will want to watch other versions or even better to read the novel:) There is a 1971 bbc version that wasn’t discussed in your post. Curious as to how you feel about it, if you’ve seen it.

Totally agree, Syrie. 1995 is my favorite, too–Amanda Root *is* Anne Elliot. Thank you for the Netflix review–since we don’t have that subscription I don’t have to feel I’m missing anything. It, indeed, sounds cringe-worthy! I look forward to seeing you in Victoria!

I agree that ‘95 version was best. It is the one I own on DVD, but did end up enjoying this year’s Netflix version. Hope you will have another Austen inspired book on the horizon! (Own all of your othered & live them!)

Well, like so many, I will agree, Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds are definitely Jane Austen’s characters stepping straight off the page and onto the screen. However, I like all the adaptations in their own way. I’m not sure the Netflix version captured anything like the feel of Persuasion as written, but if viewed in the sense of a variation it’s not all bad. I mean we enjoy fan fiction because it gives us more of the characters we love, even when different/non-cannon things take place.

I enjoyed the 2022 adaptation and so did the young ones (8, 11, 14) at our Persuasion Watch Party! Thank you for your reviews on this post!

We watched the 2022 Netflix adaptation this evening, not having seen the earlier versions. It was fun to talk about how Jane Austen might have felt about such a modernized version, including the updated script and the diverse actors. Would she have enjoyed it or found it offensive? I guess we’ll never know!

I missed the deadline by a couple days for the giveaway, but am commenting anyway! I actually really enjoyed the 2022 version, despite not being sure I would after watching the preview. I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment, and I also think the film “worked” in its way. It is much more self-conscious than Austen ever would be, and of course Austen would never include the knowing “asides” to the audience that Anne makes throughout this film. But it is a creative and fun imagining of what Anne might say if she actually said anything (which she rarely does in the novel at all), and it reminds us that, after all, Anne is a young woman who, in our mode of living and being, might very well saunter around with a bottle of wine in hand. My favorite is the Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds; then the 2022; then in a distant third the other version, which just has little to recommend it except for “Adam Carter” (smile).

I have only seen the 1995 and Netflix versions but I cannot forget Amanda Root blushing towards the end when she and Wentworth are face to face in bath. It is because of the performances in the ’95 version that I’ve read the novel and am beginning it again!

The puzzle is lovely and could easily embody Louisa’s leap. (wink)

I have read the story many times. I watched the 1995 version so frequently that it wore out!

I’ve yet to watch the 2022 netflix version – partly because I know part of me will be thinking “oh Anne would never do/say that..” etc going from the previews I’ve seen. She seems too flippant or snide, but I could be prejudging! And I admit that although I couldn’t imagine Mr Darcy diving into a pond and wandering around his estate half undressed and wet-chested; I didn’t object to that anachronism too much in the colin firth BBC version of P&P!!! Getting back to Persuasion- my vote too lies with the 1995 version. It was incredible how beautifully Anne’s gradual transformation from genteel sadness and forbearance towards determination and greater self esteem was portrayed by Amanda Root. Likewise Cieran Hinds played Captain Wentworth’s emotional journey to perfection. Not to knock the great cast in the next version, Sally Hawkins is a poignant Anne too. As a bit of a purist I can’t help liking 1995 script the best so that swings it for me…

One of the biggest reasons why we love Jane Austen is the “slow burn” of the love stories, which is the opposite of most relationships today. Yes, Anne was quiet in the 1995 version, but that was a virtue back then, just as Eleanor was in Sense and Sensibility. There is something so romantic and even seducing about revealing your feelings bit by bit. Holding hands was a huge thing. A first kiss was a leap. The 1995 version was the best by far. The Sally Hawkins version was a “quicker” version with little of the discretion and virtue of the 1995 version. I didn’t like her looking at the camera. The supporting actors were not as fine–it felt as if they were overacting. Dakota Johnson. Please. She came off like a harlot. I know they were trying to make it “modern” as if there ARE no more virtuous women or chivalrous men. I don’t believe that. I challenge filmmakers to take those “slow burn” virtuous screenplays and put a modern woman and man into the story. Our romantic films have coarsened so much with the years. Love is patient and kind. It puts others first. THAT is what touches our hearts. More of that, please.

Extremely well said! I couldn’t agree more with this comment.

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Netflix’s Persuasion Tries to Have It All

The Jane Austen adaptation aims to be subversive when it could have just been sincere.

The banner year for onscreen Jane Austen adaptations will always be 1995. That year, the BBC aired Andrew Davies’s Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, a pitch-perfect, six-episode version of Austen’s novel that remains one of the best miniseries in the broadcaster’s history. That same year also saw the release of Amy Heckerling’s Clueless , a loose take on Austen’s Emma that transposed its action onto the spoiled teenagers of Beverly Hills. These remain, to me, the twin poles of what can be done with Austen’s vivid body of work: a faithful reproduction that draws directly from the author’s clever dialogue and rich characterization, and an arch, modern masterpiece that captures her comedic spirit.

Carrie Cracknell’s Persuasion , which debuts today on Netflix, tries to take both approaches at the same time, and the results are downright bizarre. Aesthetically, it’s straightforward enough, a period-appropriate costume drama set in early-19th-century England. It’s replete with tasteful gowns, dashing military uniforms, and the like. But though the film has the same basic plot as Austen’s novel (her last completed book, published in 1817), it’s also filled with self-aware flourishes that have drawn comparison to present-day British comedies like Fleabag . Anne Elliot (played by Dakota Johnson), Austen’s most retiring and internal heroine, spends much of the movie chatting to the camera, even giving sarcastic glances and eye rolls in the middle of the action.

Read: Cosplaying Jane Austen

Yes, that kind of fourth-wall-breaking can work, as Phoebe Waller-Bridge so expertly demonstrated in Fleabag , but here it feels insufferably gimmicky. As if Persuasion doesn’t have enough faith in its own plotting, it sasses the script for the viewer’s sake, lest we grow bored by the familiar beats of the period rom-com. Characters throw around contemporary terms such as empath and exes that clang oddly in their 19th-century environs; one line of dialogue asserts, “It is often said if you’re a five in London, you’re a 10 in Bath.” Austen certainly never wrote anything that hackneyed, but maybe the screenwriters Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow overheard it being screamed at a recent bachelor party.

The end product is particularly disappointing, given that Persuasion is an Austen novel that’s gotten far less cinematic attention in recent decades, even as interest in adapting her work for the screen has skyrocketed. A 1995 TV rendition, also produced by the BBC, remains my favorite, and a more recent effort came out in 2007, but this is the first time Persuasion has been produced as a feature film. Perhaps that delay is because Anne Elliot is a more mature and reserved heroine when compared with impetuous wits like Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse. Unmarried at 27, Anne is viewed as something of an old maid by her family and still nurses the hurt of a past relationship with Captain Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), which her family broke off years prior because they viewed him as an unsuitable match.

Read: What Jane Austen thought marriage couldn’t do

Seven years later, the Elliots are in financial hardship and have to downgrade from their sophisticated estate to provincial Bath, where Anne runs into Wentworth again, now a self-made success. Hijinks ensue, but the book is mainly a slow series of emotional nudges, with its two central figures both easing out of lingering heartache and taking their time to heal before embarking on romance again. The novel is one of careful choices and genuine introspection, tinged with more melancholy than Austen’s earlier works.

Little of that is present in this cinematic Persuasion , which portrays all of Anne’s self-doubt in knowing monologues delivered straight down the lens. Jarvis is a charming, if distant, foil, but because he doesn’t get to talk to the camera, the movie doesn’t really know what to do with him. He mostly stands stiffly and handsomely off to the side while Anne and company debate her next moves. Henry Golding swoops in and out as the dashing cad William Elliot, a cousin of Anne’s who serves as a romantic rival, but there’s never any real doubt about which direction Persuasion is heading in, partly because the characters keep plainly acknowledging it for the audience’s benefit.

Sincerity is key to any good Austen movie or TV show. Clueless may indulge crackling quips that wouldn’t make sense anytime but in the summer of 1995, but it’s also a candid tale of a girl growing up and embarking on the first mature relationship of her life. Other successful Emma s, such as Douglas McGrath’s 1996 version with Gwyneth Paltrow and Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 version with Anya Taylor-Joy, have a similar grasp on their heroine’s development from smarmy gossip to thoughtful friend and companion. Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility , yet another wonderful 1995 Austen adaptation, understands the deep family bonds driving the drama forward. By contrast, Persuasion seems to think its best strength is its wild subversion of the author’s steady narration.

Making changes to the text doesn’t automatically doom an Austen movie to failure. Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride and Prejudice gave the action a more windswept, Brontë-like tenor, and Patricia Rozema’s 1999 Mansfield Park places deeper emphasis on the role of slavery (glancingly mentioned in the novel); both are worthy works that have their devoted fans. But Persuasion at times seems embarrassed by its source material, or at least overeager to spruce it up for audiences that might not be able to handle a gentler pace. The result is harried and forgettable—the complete opposite of Austen’s quietest, noblest heroine.

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Persuasion review: netflix’s modern jane austen adaptation misses the mark.

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Few authors have earned the kind of reputation that Jane Austen has. Her works still spark passion and interest among modern readers, and just the name Austen conjures a certain style and tone. It's no surprise that the team over at Netflix, which has already found period romance success with  Bridgerton , would wish to entice audiences with a fresh adaptation of  Persuasion , Austen's last novel. Director Carrie Cracknell and screenwriters Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow have chosen to approach this novel in a way that has already confounded Austen fans : By giving it 2022 sensibilities. Though Dakota Johnson makes for a winning Anne Elliot, Persuasion struggles to recapture Austen's magic in its desire to inject a modern touch.

Rather than beginning at the start of a relationship, Persuasion  picks up years after the end of one. Sensible and humble Anne (Johnson) was engaged to a poor naval officer, Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), at a young age. But despite their strong bond, she was persuaded to end their relationship due to his seemingly insufficient prospects. Now in her late 20s, Anne finds herself thrown back into Wentworth's life when her family is forced to vacate their expensive home. Suddenly faced with all she has lost, Anne must decide whether to finally follow her heart or officially move on. Unbeknownst to her, Wentworth is grappling with the same issues.

Related:  Dakota Johnson Is A Modern Day Jane Austen Heroine In Persuasion Trailer

When translating a beloved novel to the screen, it should be assumed that changes will be made, and that is okay. Very few books can be adapted faithfully, especially when it comes to one that relies so much on internal thoughts like Persuasion . To work around this, Bass and Winslow choose to have Anne address the camera directly, breaking the fourth wall to explicitly convey her conflicted feelings. In the hands of another performer, this would come across as very cheesy, and one can argue it doesn't quite fit within a period romance like this. Luckily, though, Johnson is game to treat the camera — and, by extension, the audience — as a willing confidant. Her sly glances and honest confessions only endear the viewer more to her Anne, and Johnson certainly seems to be having fun with the role. Though this version of Anne has more spunk than she does in the book, Johnson plays her quite well.

However, the modernized approach this  Persuasion takes still runs into some issues. There are bits of dialogue that try too hard to bring the 1817 story into 2022. For example, Anne pulls out a bundle of sheet music and calls it a "playlist" that Wentworth gifted her. At another moment, she describes the dashing yet calculating Mr. Elliot (Henry Golding) "a ten." There could be a clever Regency romance that chooses to tell its story with modern phrases and elements, but  Persuasion 's approach comes across far more awkward. Bass and Winslow might have been trying to find a new angle to bring to the classic story, but all it does is highlight just how out of touch the overall tone is. This isn't helped by the fact that Persuasion brings Anne and Wentworth together far more times than Austen ever did. Rather than letting the distance between them lead to classic pining,  Persuasion forces them into interacting on friendly terms, and this ultimately diminishes the love story, which is supposed to be rife with longing. If Anne and Wentworth are capable of spending time together, then what is to stop them from working through their past heartbreak much faster?

Storytelling choices aside,  Persuasion is aided by its cast. As the central pair, Johnson and Jarvis have a sweetly earnest rapport that helps elevate the few moments where they are properly allowed to pine for each other. The other characters don't always get many moments to shine, though Mia McKenna-Bruce deserves a shoutout for her performance as Anne's vain sister Mary. Her casual disregard for her children and complete lack of selflessness makes for some genuine laughs. Golding also deserves props for playing a more nefarious suitor; after his breakout turn in  Crazy Rich Asians , he seemed destined to always be cast as romantic heroes, so it is nice to see him switch things up a bit.  Persuasion 's cast makes up for the more muted approach to production design and costuming that Cracknell employs. Those more well-versed in period costumes will no doubt take issue with certain choices made throughout, though the settings the characters inhabit do look quite lovely overall.

There are bound to be viewers less familiar with the source material who are enchanted by  Persuasion . However, the modern touches are just too persistent to ignore, and they take away something that the movie urgently needed — genuine depth. Johnson is a charming leading lady and one could easily watch her play an Austen heroine many times over. It is just a shame that, in its attempts to be more modern, the filmmakers opted to overlook themes that could instead be played up to make  Persuasion 's story more accessible to viewers. As seen with Greta Gerwig's  Little Women , it is possible to find present-day relevance in an older story. It just needs to be done on a deeper level than having its heroine drink copious amounts of wine.

More: Mr. Malcolm's List Review: A Charming Period Romance Led By An Excellent Cast

Persuasion   releases on Netflix Friday, July 15. It is 109 minutes long and rated PG for some suggestive references.

Persuasion is an American romantic drama based on the Jane Austin book of the same name. Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis play the leads, with the likes of Richard E. Grant, Ben Bailey, and Nikki Amuka-Bird supporting. The movie received mixed reviews when it was released on Netflix in July of 2022, with some critics unhappy with the way that the source material had been modernized.

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Netflix’s Persuasion is an absolute disaster

The new adaptation of the Jane Austen classic, starring Dakota Johnson, swings wildly from dour to dull.

by Constance Grady

It’s hard to overstate just how bad Netflix’s Persuasion is, and in how many ways.

As an imitation of Netflix’s hit Bridgerton , Persuasion is a pale copy. While it aims for the candy-coated Regency pastiche that Bridgerton made fashionable, it’s too stolidly convinced of its own virtues to revel in the sudsiness that renders Bridgerton so satisfying. It apes Bridgerton ’s cheeky anachronisms (“A 5 in London is a 10 in Bath!”) as if its audience should consider them revelations rather than weak jokes that by now are more than tired.

As a showcase for Dakota Johnson, it’s a letdown. Johnson’s easy screen presence has been the redeeming factor of many a bad movie before this one, but in the starring role of Anne Elliot, she does nothing to lighten Persuasion as it swings on its emotional pendulum from dour to dull. Instead, she winks at the camera with her best Jim-from- The Office smirk, as if to say, “Aren’t we all in agreement that this is charming?” We aren’t.

As an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion , it’s a disaster. Where Austen’s original is devastating in its restraint, this film is broad in its humor, shallow in its emotions, and ham-fisted in its characterization. Unforgivably, it makes a mess of one of Austen’s most romantic moments, undercutting the iconic letter-writing scene until it’s lost all internal logic and, with it, all emotional power.

Taken on its own, purely as a movie, Persuasion is simply bad. It is boring. It’s not romantic. It’s not funny. It’s not sad. It seems to have no reason to exist— and the reason it does eventually offer up is frankly insulting to everyone involved.

Persuasion , directed by Carrie Cracknell and with a screenplay by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, loosely follows the plot of Austen’s original. Anne Elliot — rich, pretty, and charming — was once madly in love with the penniless young sailor Frederick Wentworth. They were engaged to be married. But Anne’s friends and relatives convinced her that she should not throw herself away at 19 on a man who had no money and few prospects, and so she broke Wentworth’s heart.

When both novel and movie open, it’s eight years later. Anne has never gotten over Wentworth, but she’s now a spinster, resigned to devoting her life to caring for her sisters and her sister’s children. Wentworth, meanwhile, has become a captain in the navy. He’s now wealthy and respectable, in search of a wife of his own, and still furious with Anne for ending their relationship the way she did. And circumstances have conspired to make him a guest at her sister’s home while Anne is staying there too.

Austen’s Anne reacts to these circumstances the way she reacts to most things: outwardly remaining as calm and composed as possible, while inwardly tortured. The tension between the social pressures Anne is forced to navigate and her profound emotional pain is part of what drives Austen’s Persuasion forward, what makes it so heartbreaking to read.

This sort of interior divide is admittedly a difficult one to dramatize onscreen. The solution Cracknell and her collaborators have invented is admittedly a novel one: they got rid of it entirely.

In Netflix’s Persuasion , Anne takes on the mannerisms of the heroine of a mid-tier ’90s rom-com, weeping in the bathtub, weeping into copious amounts of red wine, weeping as she pratfalls into accidentally pouring gravy over her head. When she isn’t weeping, she is either mugging to the camera over her relatives’ foibles or blurting out non sequiturs in awkward social situations. “Sometimes I have a dream that an octopus is sucking my face,” she tells one party.

Wentworth, meanwhile, has lost the polished charm and go-getter energy of his book counterpart. As played by Cosmo Jarvis, Wentworth is shy, brooding, and vague; a Darcy cyborg without the specificity. He gives good gaze, but no evidence of anything behind it.

The film picks up briefly when Henry Golding arrives to play Mr. Elliot, Anne’s cousin and Wentworth’s rival for her heart. Golding is in pure mustache-twirling villain mode (although unaccountably, Cracknell has omitted the plot line in which Mr. Elliot is actually revealed to be a villain). His presence adds a welcome jolt of energy to the proceedings.

Energy by and large is lacking here, a fact of which the film seems utterly unaware. Persuasion carries on under the apparent assumption that all its trendy anachronisms will jolt fusty old Austen to life. Where Austen wrote, with her finely tuned sense of irony and social paradox, “Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement,” Cracknell renders the line as the achingly clumsy, “Now we’re strangers. No, worse than strangers. We’re exes.” Then the camera pulls back to let you survey the result, as if this film has done you the service of making Persuasion make sense in the 21st century, in the same way that Clueless made Emma make sense in the 20th century.

But the thing is, Austen’s Persuasion already makes sense in the 21st century. (So, for that matter, does Emma , a fact of which Clueless was fully aware.) Sure, the social codes that made Anne Elliot determined to cover up her own heartbreak have changed. But the emotions at the novel’s core — loneliness, longing, despair — breathe powerfully through into the present.

Adapting Emma into Clueless worked because its transposition of Regency mores into a ’90s SoCal high school was playful and witty. Clueless wasn’t explaining Emma to an audience too dumb to get it. It was having fun with its audience.

Persuasion ’s attempt to transpose modern mores into Regency England just feels clumsy and condescending. It feels like the movie thinks you’re too stupid to understand Jane Austen on your own, so instead of trying to bring her work to life, it’s decided to spoon-feed you a summary.

In one indelible moment of Austen’s Persuasion , Wentworth tells Anne, “I am half agony, half hope.” Netflix’s Persuasion is all agony.

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Persuasion (2022).

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 3 Reviews
• Kids Say 3 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Diverse but muddled adaptation has drinking, mild innuendo.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Persuasion is an adaptation of Jane Austen's final completed novel that aims for a more modern feel than previous versions. Characters of color are featured in lead roles, which isn't typical for films set in early 19th century upper-class England. Plus, main character Anne (Dakota…

Why Age 10+?

Adults drink frequently. Anne often drinks alone, sometimes right out of the win

A boy is carried back to the house crying after hurting his arm. A woman falls a

Innuendo about finding male "company" and a suggestive use of the word "bushel."

Any Positive Content?

Women should be treated as equals, as independent, thinking beings worthy of res

Anne thinks for herself and speaks her mind. She cares about others, suggests th

Main characters are Black, White, and Asian, which is atypical for the story's e

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink frequently. Anne often drinks alone, sometimes right out of the wine bottle. Mention of getting someone drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

A boy is carried back to the house crying after hurting his arm. A woman falls and hurts her foot; another falls and lands on concrete, suffering a serious concussion. Boys hit a woman with sticks in play. Talk of deaths.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Innuendo about finding male "company" and a suggestive use of the word "bushel." Women and men flirt and kiss.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Women should be treated as equals, as independent, thinking beings worthy of respect and public roles. The only ways out of family in the early 19th century for a woman were marriage or death, and marriage was often transactional. The best marriages are those based on love. "Don't let anyone tell you how to live or who to love."

Positive Role Models

Anne thinks for herself and speaks her mind. She cares about others, suggests that respectability should come from honesty, integrity, and compassion rather than wealth or nobility. Her father and shallow sisters think otherwise, are constantly scheming to climb the social ladder. Wentworth embodies the characteristics Anne mentions; he always tries to do the right thing.

Diverse Representations

Main characters are Black, White, and Asian, which is atypical for the story's early 19th century upper-class English setting. Anne is an early feminist within the constraints of the society she lives in.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Persuasion is an adaptation of Jane Austen's final completed novel that aims for a more modern feel than previous versions. Characters of color are featured in lead roles, which isn't typical for films set in early 19th century upper-class England. Plus, main character Anne ( Dakota Johnson ) is positioned as a feminist who spars intellectually with men and stands up for women's rights. The movie also has a few mature elements. Expect flirting, kissing, and innuendo. Adults, including Anne, drink. A boy injures his arm and has to be carried home crying. A woman falls, hits her head, and gets a serious concussion that takes months to heal. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Fun, not faithful adaptation

Super cute movie my kids loved it, what's the story.

It's been eight years since Anne Elliot ( Dakota Johnson ) was persuaded to break off her engagement to Captain Frederick Wentworth ( Cosmo Jarvis ) at the start of PERSUASION. She was convinced to do so because Wentworth was not as wealthy as her family. Now, her father ( Richard E. Grant ) has overspent the family into debt, meaning they must rent out their estate and move to a humbler abode temporarily. Their renters turn out to be related to Wentworth, who comes for a visit. It's clear Anne and Wentworth still have feelings for each other, but neither will admit it. This leads Wentworth into a new relationship, and Anne, meanwhile, is pursued by wealthy cousin William ( Henry Golding) .

Is It Any Good?

The imposition of anachronistic elements to modernize Jane Austen's novel ultimately undermines the story and characters. From a trendy exploitation of fourth-wall breaking to unsubtle sexual innuendo, modern-day music, and 21st century self-help speak, Persuasion doesn't seem content enough with its original material. This is a shame, and the excellent cast suffers for it; in fact, adding in a contemporary diversity is one modernization that does work well here. Johnson has the charisma and credibility to hold the camera's attention, but the snarky asides and forced complicity just don't fit with the character or the time period, otherwise faithfully crafted in beautiful settings and wardrobes. This is a mixed bag that could've been better.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the adaptation of a book into a movie, as with Persuasion . What do you imagine are some of the challenges of an adaptation? What other book-based movies have you watched? Any by Jane Austen?

What do you think of the character of Anne talking to the camera? Does this make you feel more or less engaged in the story? What other movies or series have you seen this device in?

In what ways do the characters here feel of their time? In what ways do they feel more modern?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : July 15, 2022
• Cast : Dakota Johnson , Cosmo Jarvis , Henry Golding
• Director : Carrie Cracknell
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors, Female writers
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Book Characters , Brothers and Sisters , Friendship
• Run time : 109 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some suggestive references
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Persuasion Movie

Who's Involved:

Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Christina Weiss Lurie, Izuka Hoyle, Alice Victoria Winslow, Ben Bailey-Smith, Richard E. Grant, Henry Golding, Elizabeth Cantillon, Andrew Lazar, Ron Bass, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Carrie Cracknell, Yolanda Kettle, Mael Constable, David Fliegel, Nia Towle

Release Date:

Friday, July 15, 2022 Netflix

Plot: What's the story about?

Living with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy, Anne Elliot is an unconforming woman with modern sensibilities. When Frederick Wentworth—the dashing one she once sent away—crashes back into her life, Anne must choose between putting the past behind her or listening to her heart when it comes to second chances .

official plot version

4.00 / 5 stars ( 3 users)

Poll: Will you see Persuasion?

Who stars in Persuasion: Cast List

Dakota Johnson ... Anne Elliot

Fifty Shades of Grey, 21 Jump Street  

Henry Golding ... Mr. Elliot

The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare, The Tiger's Apprentice  

Cosmo Jarvis

Alto Knights, The Evening Hour  

Richard E. Grant

Logan, Dom Hemingway  

Nikki Amuka-Bird

Rumours, Old  

Mia McKenna-Bruce

Vampire Academy, Kindling  

Ben Bailey-Smith

Yolanda Kettle

Izuka Hoyle

The Outrun, Villain  

Who's making Persuasion: Crew List

A look at the Persuasion behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's writer Ron Bass last wrote Before We Go and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan .

Carrie Cracknell

Screenwriters

Ron Bass Alice Victoria Winslow

Production Company

Media Rights Capital

Watch Persuasion Trailers & Videos

Official Trailer

Production: what we know about persuasion.

• Adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.

Filming Timeline

• 2022 - April : The film was set to Completed  status.
• 2021 - May : The film was set to Pre-Production  status.

Start filming May 2021.

Persuasion Release Date: When was the film released?

Persuasion was a Netflix release in 2022 on Friday, July 15, 2022 . There were 18 other movies released on the same date, including Where The Crawdads Sing , Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank .

Q&A Asked about Persuasion

Seen the movie? Rate It!

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Follow the Updates

• Fri., Jun. 17, 2022
• added Izuka Hoyle as actor to movie credits
• added Nia Towle as actor to movie credits
• added Yolanda Kettle as actor to movie credits
• added Ben Bailey-Smith as actor to movie credits
• added Mia McKenna-Bruce as actor to movie credits
• added Nikki Amuka-Bird as actor to movie credits
• added Richard E. Grant as actor to movie credits
• added Cosmo Jarvis as actor to movie credits
• added David Fliegel as executive producer to movie credits
• added Mael Constable as executive producer to movie credits

Looking for more information on Persuasion?

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Persuasion (2022) Movie Review – This novel adaptation underestimates Austen fans

This ‘persuasion’ adaptation underestimates austen fans.

When the trailer for Persuasion dropped in June, Austenites took to Twitter with a vehement cry that they’ve done it–they’ve “Fleabag-ified” Jane Austen–citing modern turns of phrase and asides to the camera from Dakota Johnson.

My initial reaction, as someone who has cherished Jane Austen since the age of 15, wasn’t so virulent. After all, would it be so bad to combine Phoebe Waller Bridge’s self-deprecating wit with Jane Austen’s wryly delivered commentary?

It’s difficult to put an original spin on Austen (we can’t all be Love and Friendship ), so I found myself excited to see this approach would turn out in the hands of theater director Carrie Cracknell, despite some minor misgivings. For one, of all Austen heroines, wry asides feel like they would be more suited to the playful cleverness of Elizabeth Bennet than Anne Elliot’s graceful maturity.

But Cracknell reimagines Anne (Dakota Johnson) to be a lot more impertinent and awkward than the protagonist of the source material–with a greater taste for alcohol too. Her story is more or less the same.

She meets and falls in love with Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) at the age of 19, only for her mentor, Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird), to persuade her to give him up. Back then, Wentworth had no fortune to recommend him. Now, eight years have passed. Wentworth is a rich captain in the Royal Navy, and Anne is as lovelorn as ever–but he hasn’t forgotten her rejection.

This new take on Anne Elliot works in some ways. Johnson is charming, likable, and relatable to this day and age. Though, she hardly needs to guzzle wine, speak directly to us, use words like “playlist” and “exes,” and trip over her words and feet to be such.

That’s part of the issue, really–not the fresh spin on Persuasion , but the film’s permeating assumption that its audience can’t be trusted to understand and relate to the witticisms of the original. 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with modernizing Austen; Amy Heckerling’s Clueless did so seamlessly with Emma in 1995. But while there was reason behind this 90s contextualization of Austen, Persuasion seems to have little motive behind its partial revamp other than the desire to dumb things down.

Take the film’s supposed “Fleabag-ification.” Where Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s asides in Fleabag are to let us in on her secret view of the world, Dakota Johnson’s are to explain things we must be too dense to understand for ourselves.

This puts into question every stylistic choice Cracknell’s team makes. Where Clueless used contemporary lingo to emphasize its high school setting and to create an intentional dissonance between Cher’s cleverness and the way she chooses to express herself– Persuasion ’s “We’re worse than exes… we’re friends” rings false for having its feet firmly planted in the Regency Period.

The most recent Austen adaptation doesn’t even expect us to keep track of its three main settings, displaying each new place in bold typeface on the screen. When Love and Friendship employed similar frames to introduce its characters, it was a necessity due, rather, to director Whit Stillman’s refusal to slow down or coddle viewers. 

Persuasion –while still charming and undoubtedly good for a few laughs–undersells its source material and underestimates Jane Austen fans. After all, a mark of the best Austen adaptations ( Clueless and Love and Friendship among them) is the expectation of the viewers’ ability to put in the work. 

Read More: Persuasion Ending Explained

Feel free to check out more of our movie reviews here!

• Verdict - 5.5/10 5.5/10

8 thoughts on “Persuasion (2022) Movie Review – This novel adaptation underestimates Austen fans”

Terrible Austen re do. Cast choices were interesting but I felt the whole pic glib. Struggled to watch it to the end (hoped it would improve) I felt Richard Grant hammed it up entirely whilst the rest of the cast seemed disjointed. Henry Goldings character seemed shallow and his connection/marriage with Miss Clay farcical. Not a patch of some of the other Austen novel adaptations sadly.

The story is way off the adaption from Jane Austeen. Just awful. While the multicultural cast did well, Dakota Johnson was terrible.

Jag fattar inte varför det gnälla så mycket om filmen. Jag tyckte den var bra och jag fick mej några goda skratt. Och jag har läst boken.

Responding to Tina, I don’t think anyone missed the point – it just wasn’t very well done.

I was disappointed in the adaptation. I am open to modernizations and adaptations, I would still have liked to stay somewhat true to the regency period of proprietary- e.g. not using first names, kissing a ‘lady’ in public or for heaven’s sake Anne immersing her entire body into the sea fully clothed and in view of a man. This version did not illuminate the treachery of Mr. Elliott (the cousin) and Mrs. Clay. Captain Wentworth wore his heart on his sleeve! I LOVED the multicultural cast and thought that the actors did a nice job.

I think y’all missed the point of this adaptation. It was never meant to be a definitive straight adaptations of the book. You literally have two others to scratch this itch. It presents the text as something new, something different. It’s for a younger, modern audience, possibly those who aren’t at a mature enough age to read and comprehend Jane Austen.

Utterly ghastly! Falls short at so many levels it should have been scrapped in production.

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