Persuasion Movie Review — You Might Be Persuaded To Skip This One!
You can watch the trailer for the movie "Persuasion" here - https://youtu.be/Fz7HmgPJQak
“Painfully bland” is the only phrase I am able to settle on in describing Netflix's latest period drama, “Persuasion”. The movie, an adaptation of the titular Jane Austen novel, is one of those that should ideally have been left to rot in the dark pits of forgotten scripts at Netflix HQ.
From the first few minutes, you get a sense that even the most avid Jane Austen fan might leave the movie feeling like they were robbed of reliving the emotional intricacies and beautiful storytelling that the book offered. The movie starts off with Dakota Johnson’s character, the protagonist, Anne Elliot, saying, “I almost got married once…” and if you listen intently to the inflection of her voice as she spoke, you may hear it linger on the word “almost” as though foreshadowing the ambitiousness that the movie ultimately falls terribly short of by the end of its nearly two-hour run.
As with most recent theatrical adaptations of classical works of literary fiction, this movie aims to use a budding narrative style to boost the source material’s relatability to today's audience —a strategy that is completely unnecessary. Anne breaks the fourth wall and lets us into her state of mind post-persuasion. She opts to use some bit of sarcasm and drab humor to relay her anguish by repeatedly telling us she’s “thriving” as we watch her wallow in a montage of bathtub tears and doleful longing. And over the course of the movie’s first act, this quasi-sarcastic undertone is used in exploring how she describes and relates to her family, choosing to highlight their vanities in contrast to her seemingly inbuilt humility and empathy.
Sadly, the “breaking the fourth wall” narrative style employed in this movie feels tedious and out of place. Every moment Anne speaks to us, it feels as though this was done intentionally to avoid having Dakota Johnson bear the brunt of relaying the heavy emotions necessary for her character. As such, instead of showing us her pain and regrets, she is forced to talk us through them. In addition, one also gets a gnawing sense that the scriptwriters were on a mission to make us root for Anne Elliot without the due diligence in providing us with the sufficient character exploration that intricately defined the entirety of the book.
Now, none of these lapses are indicative of the actors in this movie not doing their jobs well. Dakota Johnson has become one of the brightest actresses of her time. And while there are some that might argue that she’s not the most versatile, there is no denying that she has a really alluring spark on screen that just sets her apart. And for the most part of this movie, save for her unconvincing English accent, she shines brightly. However, there is only so much an actress of her caliber —and the caliber of her co-stars— can do to salvage an adaptation that had no bearing on success from the start.
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Rating: 1/5
Persuasion is available on Netflix