"Persuasion" in Practice and Theory

Why This Jane Austen Movie Hurt My Soul

I had high hopes for this film based on a trailer and a dream but like most things in this economy, it was immediately dashed.

I was deeply persuaded to watch this movie with friends and I can assure you I left with much pride and prejudice.

That’s not to say there wasn’t any merit to Director Carrie Cracknell’s 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel! There are enough interesting characters and Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson) has a, ah, healthy relationship with her father (ish. A really big ish. Not in an inappropriate or absent way, but like she can verbally spar with him and not face repercussions) and some of her relatives. Not all. Some really hate how sweet and intelligent she is and that kinda blows but family can be straight shite but Anne just takes it with a bow and a smirk at the camera.

Which was an unusual feeling, something reminiscent of Deadpool or Gentleman Jack as Anne would turn meaningfully to the camera and roll her eyes or stare at our souls with a deadpan expression with all the chagrin of The Office. For visualizing the story on screen from a third person (limited omniscient) point of view in the novel, this should have been a great way to showcase Anne’s internal dialogue and her woeful mental gymnastics.

However, it felt hesitant and dyssynchronous with the time period. We would drop into Anne’s point of view at random times, possibly crucial times for the narrative, but oftentimes just to vibe with Anne in her depression which I’m all for but it was kind of boring. It showed more of her character and how passive she is, how she was “persuaded” into leaving the love of her life 8 years prior, how she is trapped by her many thoughts rather than liberated by them, but it felt disingenuous.

What the hell do I even mean by that?

Well. Anne would wallow. A lot. There was a lot of waffling and wallowing and oh pity is thy name.

What in the Fifty Shades of Grey is this? Her hair looks fabulous though.

She begins the film by blaming everyone around her for the dismissal of her love Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) years before, but she slowly and horrifyingly comes to the realization that it is all her fault.

She should have stood her ground. She shouldn’t have let them bully her into a different course. She should not have let her love slip away by the misgivings of her relatives.

The odd narrative technique of staring into camera for a quick joke felt off-putting, but man oh man it does not even compare to how awkward it was when they made modern jokes in a period setting.

Imagine dropping the words “Slaaay queen” or “Wig, snatched,” or even “That’s so fetch” in a historical drama piece about Napoleon.

It would feel weird right?

Unless it was a fictionalized historical piece about a drag queen named Napoleon who had one leg and would ride a horse to shows, but if not specifically then, it feels weird weirdly anachronistic.

Of course the director can take creative liberties, but each modern joke fit to this time felt forced and out of place and I’m not sure better timing or delivery could have saved that.

Some of the anachronistic jokes were okaaay, but they weren’t great. In a movie that was mostly okaaay with jokes to break up the melodrama that were just okaaay, it made everything “hmm ok *sigh*.”

But the thing that jived my jellies the wrong way, the snake in my boot, the calling card that made me want to watch this movie and then disappointed upon failed delivery was this bitch:

Loved him in Crazy Rich Asians. Was meh about him in Snake Eyes. Was DYING to see him here but I was sorely disappointed.

He was barely in this movie but everything I saw made it seem like he would be there as a romantic lead (which he was, ish. Goddamn there’s a lot of -ishes in this movie, you’ll have to watch it to understand and even then oh gosh you’d have to tell me what you think please!) and I waited and waited and waited!

This man is end of second act, third act arrival. Showing up to the theatre fashionably late but you know he’s just a prick in a pretty coat.

I wanted to see Golding flaunt across the screen more :’( but alas. It did not happen.

Hmm. That may be a contributing factor to my less than favorable viewing of this movie, being strung along in trailers with whispers of Golding’s face to grace the screen much more than he actually is.

But I’ll stand by my ground. I have yet to read this novel and I am less inclined to do so now, but if you like Jane Austen. If you like well-written albeit depressed women as leads, this is not a bad movie.

To someone who’s read Jane Austen’s other novels and who knows the kind of strong, independent women she packs her books with, Anne didn’t feel like she lived up to that ideal. And maybe that’s how she’s written and maybe that’s how we’ll have to let the cookie crumble because she did have good moments, but when you really want her to rise to her relative’s slander— she doesn’t.

Thank you all for reading this far and for coming back every time I stumble with writing consistently. I appreciate the fact that ya’ll are out there, accepting these newsletters into your inbox and sometimes dropping a heart or a comment <3 it means everything to me.