by Nathaniel R
Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis star in "Persuasion"
Jane Austen's final completed novel Persuasion has been adapted to screen several times, but unlike her most famous novels, theatrical motion picture fame as eluded it. The latest non-theatrical screen adaptation, via Netflix this time, has met with such harsh reviews that we almost didn't watch it. Nevertheless the extremely alluring faces of Dakota Johnson, Henry Golding, and Cosmo Jarvis beckoned as did the reliable wit of Jane Austen herself. We gave in and pressed play. Unfortunately it's difficult to argue with the consensus this time around...
Director Carrie Cracknell, making her narrative feature debut after a few captures of stage performances, and the screenwriters Ron Bass (Rain Man) and Alice Victoria Winslow bizarrely sidestep the usual full embrace of Austen's wit and cathartic romanticism. This adaptation opts for a more brooding 'Bridgerton meets Fleabag romantic tragedy with a bit of Austen on the side.' The Frankenstein effect is, thus, very much felt. Dakota Johnson, a very capable actress and occassionally a brilliant one, can't stitch all the disparate pieces together in her portrayal of Anne Elliott... but, then again, who could?
Anne Elliot is very depressed in "Persuasion"
If you've never read or seen Persuasion, Anne Elliot is not unlike Austen's other heroines in some ways: she's single, proud, stubborn, smarter than her station requires, more than a little bit judgy, has a complicated relationship to her family, and is a conversational wit. Johnson plays all this of course, and at moments plays it very well. And then she smothers it with a sopping wet blanket of irritable defeated depression, limiting a wider range of feeling. In one shot, shortly before the climactic events of the film, she wades into the sea while deep in thought and it would not have been at all shocking, based on the visual choices, emotional register, and character portrayal, had she pulled a surprise Virginia Woolf and ended the story right there under the water.
Johnson and the filmmakers are so committed to Anne's long prologue-born depression (she dumped the man she totally loved eight years earlier and has tormented herself ever since) that they never think to lift it as the narrative begins to unfold "in the present" of the story we're watching. Johnson and the script barely attempt to nudge Anne out of her doldrums long enough to show the necessary long-buried sparks with her ex, Wentworth (Jarvis, exuding Byronic tragedy) when he returns to the narrative. He's older and sadder but still ravishingly handsome and now wealthy and accomplished, too! Jarvis completely sells the unspoken miles-deep but thwarted love between the two but Johnson aggravatingly buries it beyond visibility.
Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson) and her new suitor Mr Elliot (Henry Golding) a distant relative
Perhaps this is a problem of miscasting. Johnson's most bewitching star turns often trade on a kind of enigmatic interiority (Cha Cha Real Smooth, A Bigger Splash, and The Lost Daughter are all fine examples of this). Persuasion, by contrast, asks her to externalize everything. She doesn't... or won't. Or she will but only when she has no other choice. The actress comes alive mostly in her direct addresses to camera, with a 'can you believe this?' superiority and self-regarding joy. More problematically she sparks to visible life when she's flirting with her other suitor, Mr Wrong...excuse me, Mr Elliot (Henry Golding, all up-to-no-good charm). In fact, she's so forgiving and unguarded with Mr Elliot and so dismissive of Wentworth that the undertow of her foolishly discarded love barely registers. At one point in the middle of the movie I began actively rooting for Wentworth to end up with Anne's sister-in-law Louisa (a lovely and endearing Nia Towle in her first major film role) because Louisa was a lot more amiable, mentally healthy, and genuinely besotted by Wentworth than Anne. That's a huge problem given the storyline and the traditionally predictable happy Austen ending we know is waiting for us around the corner.
The wavering at-war-with-itself tone that mutes the central romance is a problem everywhere. It even shows up in the film's rhythm. The scoring and pacing and performances often suggest that we're watching a serious romantic tragedy when what we're actually supposed to be enjoying is a stubborn-headed romantic comedy.
Dakota Johnson, Izuka Hoyle, Nia Towle, and Mia McKenna-Bruce in "Persuasion"
All that said, Persuasion is not without its moments, most of them provided by the standouts among the supporting cast though, to be fair, a few come courtesy of Johnson's unwaivering watchability as a film actress, even if she is miscast. International treasure Richard E Grant is reliably game and cartoonishly enjoyable as Anne's vain father. Nikki Amuka-Bird, though especially caught between this Persuasion's tragic mood and its comic foundations, manages to deliver with dramedic precision. And finally Mia McKenna-Bruce steals her every scene as Anne's narcissistic perpetually complaining sister Mary Musgrove whose contempt for mothering her own children is quite funny. All in all, Persuasion (2022) is a mixed bag but what fandom it does collect probably won't overlap much with die hard Jane Austen fandom or romantic comedy devotees. C/C-
Persuasion (2022) is currently streaming on Netflix