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| Free audiobook recordings of Persuasion can be found at librivox.org |
Persuasion
Persuasion is a story that seems to appeal to a slightly older audience. I'm not selecting an age, it's more of a perspective, but it seems to appeal and be loved by those who have had the chance to live to regret at least one decision in their lives. A decision that was right at the time but definitely affected the whole course of your future.
Ok, spoilers will abound. If you want to avoid them, go grab a book or a movie now. Otherwise here we go.
Persuasion is a story about the relationship between Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth who were in love eight and a half years ago. Anne's great friend Lady Russel persuades Anne that it's not wise to marry a penniless naval officer when she is only 19, so she refuses Frederick. Eight and a half years later Anne's father has spent so much money the family must move to Bath and rent out Kellynch Hall to tenants. Those tenants happen to be related to the now wealthy, Captain Frederick Wentworth, throwing Anne and Frederick back together. This is a story about pride, choices, persuasion, and second chances. Or perhaps even third chances. It's moving, emotional, and mature in a way that appeals to those of us who have lived through some difficult choices, that is to say, lived.Persuasion is a story that talks about how being capable of being persuaded to see reason and amend one's own position based on logic and rationale is a good thing, even when it has difficult and life-long consequences. Those characters who cannot be persuaded to be sensible, who act only on feelings, end up feeling the consequences in visibly negative ways. People who can't be persuaded end up: insolvent (like Sir Walter), friendless (like Elizabeth), severely injured (like Louisa), or even alone because they cannot be persuaded to overcome their pride (like Captain Wentworth and Anne, at first).
Persuasion as a Virtue
Jane Austen is telling us that Persuasion can be a moderating force. It helps balance out our weaknesses and strengths. It can help prevent foolish decisions and limit the harm of excessive pride. At every turn, the success and well-being of the characters in this story comes with their ability to be persuaded to act rationally. Jane Austen argues that Anne has achieved the ideal middle ground between firmness of character and capable of being guided.Ok, so it would seem that I've written an entire essay on what I think the themes and morals of the book are. If you are interested in reading about Persuasion as a virtue you may find my post here. So, without further ado, I give you my ranking of the movie adaptations of Persuasion by Jane Austen.
1. Persuasion 1995 - starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds
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I love this version of Persuasion. It starts off beautifully and just continues to unfold in such a lovely way. The movie begins with the quiet sounds of a boat passing overhead in the water and quiet piano music. It begins developing this sense of serenity, this resolute pace, flipping between sailors rowing, and sheep grazing at Kellynch as a carriage rolls past. Right off, it's a story of the navy and the gentry at home with a subdued tone and a quiet understated beauty.
You immediately know from the moment we meet Anne's family that her father is vain and silly, her sister just as bad. In roughly five minutes we know that Anne's whole family cares little for her. That Lady Russell values her opinions and company but Elizabeth and her father, Sir Walter do not. Immediately you find out that her father doesn't even remember that she once knew and loved Frederick. And Elizabeth tells Anne quite pointedly she won't be wanted in Bath. The quiet scenes of pastoral life and servants closing up the house all set this beautiful melancholy tone that makes you feel Anne's isolation and low spirits. You feel her longing for a chance to live life on her own terms and the nostalgia for a time when she was more herself and happy with Wentworth. Very early you know that Anne now thinks that she would have been happier if she hadn't taken Lady Russell's advice and had instead married Frederick.
The movie does a lovely job of showing the way she is overly relied on by everyone to do all the work, both practical in nature, as well as relying on her to do all the emotional labor of having difficult conversations with everyone to help smooth relations.
The overbearing but protective relationship that Lady Russell has with Anne is shown, but it feels just a tiny bit like Lady Russell is being manipulative for her own reasons, where the book shows she is just slightly deficient as a judge of character. But that's really the only criticism I have for this version.
I really like the chemistry between Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds in this as well. The movie does an amazing job of conveying many of Anne's thoughts visually with lovingly crafted shots such as her meeting of Frederick again and a shot of her hand clutching a chair for support. A particularly poignant one being where she stares at her reflection in the mirror after Captain Wentworth has said he wouldn't have recognized her again. With no words, they convey so much of Anne's emotions. It is a lovely adaptation of such a sensitive work with such sensitive characters whose lives are rather rich in inner life that can be hard to capture on film.
The Admiral and Mrs. Croft are so very cute. The Admiral is amazing with the little boys, showing them how to make paper ships. Admiral and Mrs. Croft are my absolute favorites in this version. They are so adorable. I want to wrap them up in a blanket and keep them forever. I really want to be friends with them.
I love the scene at Lyme when Anne tells Captain Benwick that she CAN understand how he feels about his loss. The sincerity of both parties and the way that Frederick is watching from the other side of the table, smoking and listening and thinking.
I love the way that they capture the way that Anne's happiness begins to affect her appearance positively. She actually grows more beautiful throughout the movie as she becomes happier with better company. Blooming again in Lyme with the warmth of the Harville's and the excitement of visiting the sea. She begins to attract notice from Benwick and Mr. Elliot as he passes her on the beach.
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| Frederick leaving her the letter - by the way, you can find free audiobooks of Persuasion and other books in the public domain at librivox.org |
The whole scene where Frederick is writing the letter, and hears Anne talking with Captain Harville about how long women and men love, is perfect. Captain Harville has said that his sister wouldn't have forgotten Captain Benwick so soon. Anne agrees that "It would not be in the nature of any woman who truly loved. We do not forget you as soon as you forget us. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us." I love that Frederick is trying to listen and drops the blotter while writing. Anne continues with "I believe you capable of everything great and good. So long as, if I may, so long as the woman you love lives and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex, and it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it, is that of loving longest when all hope is gone." Followed by the dramatic look that Frederick gives her when he points out the letter he has left for her to read. And then the reading of the letter. Such a beautiful letter and her extreme agitation, urgency, after reading it. "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope." Such a lovely scene.
It's a beautiful film. Throughout the clothes and rooms/buildings are lovely. Seeing the naval officers in their uniforms is excellent. The music throughout the entire film is perfect. Lovely piano, and harp pieces. I love too that a good deal of the music is actually diegetic, that is, music coming from instruments in the scene, or at least implied to be so. The harp and piano played in the scenes to create the perfect mood and such lovely music. Dancing reels and even in the end, the carnival sounds with the same understated music over the top as they fall into each other's eyes and the world vanishes.
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| Admiral Croft in all his uniformed glory |
A few other random details/scenes I loved. Nurse Rooke, who is the Queen of gossip in Bath, who gets so excited about hearing whether or not Anne is going to marry Mr. Elliot that she pulls up a chair and leans in to better hear the juiciest news straight from Anne. It's so cute. I love that we mention Bonaparte and the ending of the war at the beginning of the movie while they are aboard the ship and then again at the end of the movie in the drawing-room at the evening card party. All the hushed drawing-room conversations that everyone overheard because, how could you not? They occur in the book, and I love that you see so many in this version.
This lovely and sensitive movie is my favorite version of Persuasion. Since Anne, is quiet and sensible where most of her family and connections are not, she is misunderstood, overlooked, and in some ways unappreciated. At this stage of life, I have very much come to relate closely to Anne's character and story. So it can be a little bit difficult for me to watch this movie terribly often. It is hard for me to watch her family be so uncaring, to watch her being ignored. But this movie is so beautiful and sensitive and nuanced that it is one of my favorites.
2. Persuasion 2007 - starring Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones
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This is a rather decent adaptation. I think this Anne is very well portrayed. It has some really lovely scenes and additions that I thoroughly enjoy. I love that in this version we see Anne journaling and we get to hear her telling us her feelings about particular events by writing about them. That's a thoughtful detail and a lovely way to include some of her inner thoughts in an unobtrusive way. Crying into the journal and alone over letters is a nice touch. You truly feel for Anne, being so alone with nobody to comfort her or help her deal with the terrible pain of being a stranger to someone you love and must always see.
There were very few things I didn't enjoy about this version. There were a few awkward moments where Anne stares into the camera feeling sad whilst she is journaling and it sort of ruins the emotional impact of the crying into the journal. Then there is the incredibly strange moment where Anne apparently knows how to set a collarbone without a doctor.
I found Sir Walter Elliot to be terrifying and self-important in this version; not silly and vain as I should describe the one in the book and my favorite portrayal in the 1995 version. The sister is much more deliberately cruel and less silly in this version as well.
I love the scene where Captain Harville recognizes the name of Elliot and asks if she is Miss Anne Elliot. Alerting us right away that he is acquainted with Frederick's feelings and the failed engagement. I like that Captain Harville tells Frederick that Louisa and her entire family are expecting him to propose to Louisa as soon as she is recovered. This allows us to find out Frederick's feelings earlier in the movie and explain why he suddenly leaves Lyme. Other versions make it seem more mysterious why he left. In the book, you don't find out what Frederick has been about until the end, but it doesn't seem to fit nicely in a movie in that location, so it's often left out. I like seeing Frederick's perspective a little earlier in the movie.
I like that this movie emphasizes that Frederick is a man of honour prepared to marry Louisa if she still thinks that's what she wants, even though it's not what he desires. I love the scene where Captain Harville tells him that Louisa has chosen to marry Captain Benwick. These extra scenes with Frederick and Harville being open about feelings are a really lovely edition to explain what Frederick is thinking and planning as he enters Bath.
I love the steamy scene in Bath where Anne and Frederick meet again. And the smiles on their faces as the joke about morbid poetry. I like the way Anne and Captain Frederick Wentworth get engaged outside Camden Place with her accepting his proposal. And I don't really have anything against what she says to him, except that it sounds almost as though they are saying that her being persuaded was a bad thing. And I don't like that they make it sound as though being persuaded was such a terrible flaw. They add the lines:
"I am in receipt of your proposal and am minded to accept it. Thank you" - Anne
"Are you quite certain?" - Frederick
"I am. I am determined. I will. And nothing, you may be sure will ever persuade me otherwise." Anne
The book is very much against this idea that her persuasion was a flaw and I think that sentiment misses the moral of the story. The whole point of the book is that being persuaded by sense and rational logic is a good thing. Would Captain Wentworth have made his fortune and been the same person if he had married Anne young? And what if he had died young during the war and left Anne a penniless widow? Women had to be rational, especially those with no hope of inheritance, or dowry, even if they were very desperately in love. She was not wrong to be persuaded it was not the right time to marry him. The book strongly stresses that although it hurt Frederick's feelings, it was the right choice at the time. Had he pursued her when he came home a few years later with some money she would have said yes.
At every turn this story emphasizes that pride and willful stubbornness are flaws and persuasion by logic and sense is a virtue. Pride is what moves Sir Walter and Elizabeth to spend too much and be incapable of seeing people's value outside of rank. This leaves them penniless and in huge debt, forcing them to move to Bath. The only good thing they do is to move to Bath to have fewer living expenses, and they were persuaded to do that by Anne, Lady Russel, their lawyer, and his daughter Mrs. Clay. The stubbornness of Frederick and pride of Anne to not reach out and express their feelings has kept them apart all these years. The ultimate example of willful stubbornness is Louisa. She can't be reasoned with to not do something even when it's dangerous, foolish, illogical. The result is a tragic accident that could have killed her.
As with all of Jane Austen's novels the qualities demand a balance. It is the middle ground that is ideal, being capable of sticking to your purpose but also knowing when logic must prevail over feelings. Achieving that "loveliest medium of fortitude and gentleness." In the end, this is what Frederick appreciates about Anne's character.
In the book Anne tells us that she was "perfectly right in being guided" by Lady Russell "to me, she was in the place of a parent. I am not saying that she did not err in her advice." Only that "I was right in submitting to her ... and if I mistake not, a strong sense of duty is no bad part of a woman's portion." At 19 with no dowry, it would have been foolish to marry a penniless naval officer. What would they have lived on? If her sister didn't marry well how would he support them all? What would happen if she was widowed so young? This story has two examples of young widows driven to hard choices. But I digress, for more on the virtue of being persuadable see my above "essay" on the story of Persuasion.
Ok, a few things I didn't like in this version. Frederick announces at a dinner party that he intends to marry anyone who smiles and complements the navy. It was inappropriate, a remark he only made to his sister in the book, not to a dinner party. It would also have been cruel and humiliating for Anne to have to listen to such a pointed speech about what he is looking for in a lady and how the traits he lists are the exact opposite of hers. If you won't have Frederick say it to his sister, it makes more sense to come from his sister as it does in the 1995 version.
Then there is the moment that Anne tells Captain Benwick at Lyme that women are not inconstant, that they love longest when all hope is lost. Frederick is meant to hear this speech and begin to think she still cares for him. It seems Frederick doesn't hear her. This means his letter is out of context and they are forced to shorten and rearrange it a little. He writes this just after he leaves her house, saying he feels hopeful, but he didn't look it, and indeed she doesn't think he did or she wouldn't chase him so.
That brings us to another point. The letter coincides with one of the most odd parts of the movie, Anne running excessively around town. The moment Frederick leaves her house she gets delayed by Lady Russel and then she runs after him just moments later. But somehow it takes her nearly five minutes of screen time to run all across town to catch up with him. She runs here and there across town always missing him. She started out just behind him and he's somehow had time to go home, write a letter, then go to the pump room, and then to visit her house again? What this leaves us with is 4 minutes and 45 seconds of running around town with short delays by people she meets at each location sending her elsewhere. She gets Frederick's note telling her he still cares and she spares exactly 16 seconds to glance at it and then we are back to running. Not only would it have been improper to run through town (we could get over that), she stupidly runs all over town for nearly five minutes of the movie and it feels boring and silly. Nearly five minutes are dedicated to weird shots of her running, But they couldn't even give her half a minute to actually read the letter, the crucial romantic letter. She glances at it and we are supposed to think she's read it. Had they cut even 30 seconds out of the running scene and given it to the letter reading, it would've been a better movie.
Then for a minor annoyance. After she has assured Frederick she intends to marry him they have the longest prelude to a kiss of all time. She is still breathing heavily from running all over town, but he seems reluctant to bend and kiss her. She is just trying to stretch up to him, not managing to reach him or kiss him for so long that it's incredibly awkward. Sadly, it's the single most awkward kiss I've ever seen in a movie. It kind of ruins this romantic moment where they finally get together after 8 years and a whole movie of build up.
As far as other minor annoyances go, I don't like the ugly clothes that Anne wears. No, she doesn't have to dress as fancy as her sister Elizabeth, but she wears ugly things and ugly browns and an ugly shawl. It annoyed me to see her in such things. Then there is the weird moment where her friend Mrs. Smith, who is supposed to be a cripple (that's why she has Nurse Rooke and lives in Bath), is somehow not an invalid at all. Mrs. Smith is running across town to be a part of the let's reveal all the endpoints to Anne as she runs across town for five minutes? So, she seems quite healthy then and seems to have no need of a nurse. Yes, that's minor but I'm mentioning it anyway.
I do like the performances of Anne and Frederick. It is a lovely movie in some ways. I do appreciate the ending. It's so charming that we see Frederick and Anne are happily engaged and he has taken her blindfolded to see a wedding present. He has apparently bought the estate of Kellynch Hall from Mr. Elliot and is giving it to her as a wedding present. Then she leaps into his arms for a hug, a kiss, and they dance in the gardens as we pan out. It's charming, heartwarming. It's lovely.
3. Persuasion 2022 Netflix movie - starring Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis
If you want to modernize Persuasion then do a modern retelling. If you want it set in the Regency era, do us a favor and don't make Anne Elliott a rude, drunk person who discusses exes and nearly pees on screen. I do not watch period dramas to watch people pee in the woods in their long skirts, or to watch sisters discuss "self-care," or have the man you're pining after go from being an "ex" to being a friend and all the horror of that. I watch period dramas for the romanticism captured so beautifully in the opening scene, for the longing, for the painfully adhered to propriety and the knowledge that by staying true to your morals you'll have a happy ending at the end of the story in the most romantic and beautiful of English settings.
If you want Anne Elliott to talk about being "single and thriving" in a facetious way and have it actually be funny, then I implore you to make it a modern retelling of the story. This adaptation flickered from beautiful to modern in the most odd ways and it failed to be romantic because it was jarringly modern and it failed to be funny because it was weirdly regency/romantic. It was neither thing and the audience felt the push and pull of both these mismatched tones throughout the whole movie. Just when you'd think ok, it's just a quirky and fun adaptation of Persuasion, it's kind of funny, just roll with it, it would become sweeping and romantic and regency again. Just when you were about to lose yourself in the drama of manners it would spring modern bullshit on you. It kept clashing with itself and it was an unfortunate state of affairs. Either movie could have been great. But both tones constantly clashing with each other did not leave a satisfactory result. That being said, there were many things I liked about it.
I still liked this Anne, even drunk, more than the 1971 Persuasion's Anne. And I like this Frederick Wentworth a lot better. I appreciate that we see more of his feelings in this one, rather like the 2007 version. I love that in this version we see Frederick's feelings much more clearly. We see him hurt, and angry and pining after her, almost but always not quite able to say he still loves her. I think there's a lot of influence from the 2007 Persuasion. We see Captain Harville having knowledge of Anne Elliot, just like the 2007 version. This movie is also influenced by the recent release and success of Bridgerton. Some of it works, some of it doesn't at all (the drunk Anne, and the modern phrasing througout). It really is too modern for a movie set in the Regency era. The characters go on about exes, and self care, and being a ten or a five. It's non-sense. The clothes aren't right. Anne wears black to the Dalrymple's and modern looking button downs at other points. Don't do a Regency adaptation if you don't want to do it properly.
I love that Anne speculates about what Frederick might think about seeing her again on the journey to Uppercross. Is he still angry with me? What if he's been pining for me day and night all these years? I also love that Anne travels with a rabbit companion on the way to Uppercross and indeed throughout the movie. I love that it's never mentioned and that she never discusses it or explains it to you, but that she's often holding it for comfort. I prefer her talking to it than to camera as well.
The only modern parts of this film that I enjoy involve Mary. She's delightful as she complains in a much more florid and modern way. I love her complaining about the flowers "my in-laws sent me that lovely bouquet, isn't that sweet, they'll only rot of course and then I'll feel even worse than if they hadn't sent anything at all. How unkind is it to remind a dying person of decay?" I love how melodramatic that particular line is. I actually laughed at this. As well as "I'm so close to death I can feel my organs decomposing."
Louisa is much more likeable in this movie, which actually is a bad thing, as it makes you despise Frederick for taking advantage of her affection. You can't see why this Louisa would ever impetuously throw herself off a staircase either. And this Louisa is such a sweetheart that it makes no sense that they have her try to set up Anne and Frederick and then ask permission to have Frederick for herself.
I absolutely hate that Anne is a drunk in this movie. She shouts at Frederick from across the way through the open window in her underwear and then hides and drops a whole gravy boat on her head in her drunken state. I hate that she is drunk at the dinner when she finally spends the evening at the Great House in Uppercross and that she rudely announces to the whole table that Charles first wanted to marry her. It's so tacky. The Anne we know and love suffered with actual grace and dignity and never would have even considered doing anything this rude and tactless. It's awful and we totally understand why Frederick would be so enamored of the kind, sweet and proper version of Louisa this film portrays.
I do find it amusing that she meets Frederick again for the first time in 8 years with jam on her face and a bread basket on her head talking about how handsome Frederick the sailor is. It's cute, and funny with the children being so entertained even if it's inappropriate. It's charming so I give this one a pass.
It is visually beautiful. The scenes of sweeping cliffside romance, the seaside and the melancholy. The classical music lilting you along on the journey as you the women walk towards the Great House in Uppercross beneath umbrellas with lanterns through the rain. It's stunning, it's perfection and then it's jarringly modern. It's trying to be two very different movies, one that takes itself seriously and loves the romance and drama of Austen's novel set in the Regency era, and the other poking fun at the exact time period it's chosen to represent. It is constantly undercutting itself as a romance and then undercutting itself as a comedy and it fails to do either justice. It's a true shame.
I love the scene where she's playing Marie Antionette in the woods with the bluebells and that when the kids get too agressive with beating "the bad Queen" with sticks, Frederick saves her. And she's so unjustified in asking him not to be angry. Which is why I like him the better for saying "what would you want me to be?" and when she has no answer, just walking away.
I love that she asks the little boy James to hug her so tightly she can't feel her body anymore. It's a touching and beautiful way to talk about how sad she feels without telling the camera for once.
Mr. Elliott is smug, arrogant, openly not a gentleman. Elliot tells Anne he doesn't want to lose his title to a new son through Mrs. Clay. It's a ridiculous thing to admit to her.
I love the scene on the beach where Anne and Frederick finally talk. He tells her "I've lived with a thousand different imagined versions of you over the years. Some to rail against, some to cherish." He tells her there's no-one quite like you. He basically tells her he wants her his life no matter what and he feels he can only have friends. It's a beautiful scene until she opens her mouth and declares they've gone from being "exes to being friends" and it's so much worse. Gross.
When she thinks Frederick is engaged she tells us, "I've always imagined myself confronting this moment with grace. I would astonish myself and others with my quiet dignity, my ability to endure. Statues would be erected in my name. In memory of Anne Elliot who suffered cosmic loss yet really held it together quite impressively." But the sad part is that the Anne Elliot from Austen's Persuasion really did and we loved her for it and this Anne does not confront it with grace or quiet dignity. She is loud and drunk and rude and talks to camera throughout it all.
But I do like the ending. I like that Harville lets her know that Benwick and Louisa are engaged. I love that she reads his letter, since it's such a lovely letter, and that she runs to find him (and it doesn't take her five minutes to get there, sorry 2007). "I have thought many times about how to tell you this, but the pain of love unrequited rendered me silent. Tell me not that I am too late. My love for you has never faltered." and the way they embrace is so lovely. With relief and disbelief and happiness and the way you feel when you finally come home after such a long absence. The song is hauntingly beautiful and lovely. And I adore the last scene of Frederick and Anne on the cliff, reunited at last.
There's more to be annoyed at in this adaptation, but there's also much more to like than in the 1971 adaptation. So it beats it with beauty and the scenes with the children. Even if Anne is a drunk, she's still more likeable than the cold Anne in 1971. And this Frederick is much more delightful than the 1971 Frederick as well.
If you want to see a more detailed discussion of this adaptation and why I think it doesn't work, you can go here.
4. Persuasion 1971 mini-series - starring Ann Firbank and Bryan Marshall
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This is a solid adaptation, but I don't like it. It doesn't have the same magic as the 1995 version or the 2007 version.
I think they portray Anne as confident and resigned. I think this does a disservice to her character. She is meant to be extremely sensitive and emotional and maybe a little bit despairing and then a little bit hopeful. She is certainly not confident and her emotional state is anything but resigned. The whole time that she watches Captain Wentworth pay attention to Louisa, and then notice her in some small way that nobody else has, it's exhausting emotionally for her. This Anne seems less conflicted, more collected.
I can't quite put a finger on what I do not appreciate about Captain Wentworth in this version, but there is something. Did he feel duplicitous to me? I am not sure, but I didn't like him. I almost feel like we know more about his internal feelings and they do him less credit. And yet we still learn nothing of his feelings, not like the way we see in the 2007 version when that Wentworth talks with Harville.
And for me, the gowns are distracting. They seem to have barely any relation to the styles and patterns that would have been appropriate to the Regency era that the movie is still claiming to be set in. Anne sometimes wears these giant bold plaid patterns. The colors also feel very sixties to me.
I have not seen the following adaptations:
Persuasion 1960 mini-seriesLet me know if I'm missing any from this list. And feel free to agree or disagree with my assessments of the films above.
Again, if you want to read my essay on Persuasion as a moral in the book, go here.
To see my ranking of Every Jane Austen Adaptation, go here.
To see my ranking of Every Jane Austen Adaptation, go here.
To see my ranking of all the Pride and Prejudice adaptations you can go here.
To see my ranking of all the Emma Adaptations you can go here.
To see my ranking of all the Sense and Sensibility adaptations you can go here.
For my discussion of all the Mansfield Park Adaptations, you can go here.
For my discussion of all the Northanger Abbey Adaptations, you can go here.
For my discussion of the Lady Susan Adaptation (Love and Friendship), you can go here.
For my discussion of all the "Not-Quite-Austen's" you can go here.
I have a whole page dedicated to Jane Austen where you can find my rankings of different movie adaptations and essays etc.
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