Persuasion (2007)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is certainly the second worst Austen adaptation (the absolute worst being Mansfield Park with toothy bare-chest hair-down whatshername playing Fanny). The casting is not just not right, it is simply opposite to the book characterisation starting from peaches-and-cream Wentworth (and the man is supposed to be a seasoned naval officer!) and straight down to Anne who looks like she is mentally challenged. Probably only Mr Elliot was right, due to which in the end I started rooting for him. The script is no less awful. I guess the circus scene have been grilled enough before me, so I will go straight to the IMPOSSIBLE ending - Wentworth could not never ever buy the estate because it could not be sold! It was entailed and the fact is essencial for the plot. If Sir Walter could sell he would have done so long before, and the story would be totally different. So why put in this illogical invention? Wasn't the lovers' reunion not good enough?

This version is far worse than the 90's version. I did not like the actress that played Anne in this version. Frederick was acceptable, although could be a little more weather-beaten, but Anne was not good. She seemed desperate with all the crying and running around. In the book, Anne is affected by his presence in the beginning and reminiscing the past and her decision, but she is not crying and longing for him! She actually wants to avoid him! She grows to feel the full extent of love again and is behaving as a lady ought to behave in these times. In the 2007 movie version Anne is deeply touched by the news that Fredrick is back from the sea and she even cries! Book's Anne is more composed. The fact that in the movie, they made her write a diary seems enough to show her feelings about Fredrick, crying wasn't necessary.

This is the first adaption of Jane Austen's Persuasion that I have watched, so I am judging it solely off its representation of the book, with no reference to any other film interpretations. There are not any particular spoilers below, I just wanted to be on the safe side.I was really disappointed on the whole when I watched it. In fact, I started making note every time something happened in the film that did not happen in the book. I am very familiar with the book, having read it many times, as it is a favourite of mine. Anne's character was distorted in an unflattering way, Captain Wentworth was not explored enough in depth. His relationship with Anne, both past, and current was distorted. The section of the film that took place in Bath was really quite terrible. There were a number of events that were distorted in an impractical, unrealistic way, and quite unnecessarily. I did not like the way the characters were given lines in the film that took the place of the narrator in the book. This was obviously a tool used to impart the information shared by the narrator in the book, but it was just another distortion.Sir Walter was really the redeeming feature of this film, I thought Anthony Head portrayed him very well. I found Sally Hawkins as Anne to be not likable enough, and not accurate of Austen's Anne. Anne was sweet, and gentle, with a hint of faded prettiness. Hawkins' Anne merely came across as awkward, spinsterly and dumpy. I could not see anything in her that would have made a young Captain Wentworth fall in love with her, for she was supposed to have been quite pretty when she 'bloomed' when she was younger. Rupert Penry-Jones was fair enough as Captain Wentworth, but not overwhelming or compelling.The viewing was not a complete waste of time, but I won't be watching it again, or recommending to anyone, if they want an accurate representation of the book. It does not measure up to other film interpretations of Austen's other works, by far.

Rupert Penry-Jones's Captain Wentworth behaved as a military man would be expected to behave. He is intelligent, disciplined, decisive, ego-driven. We aren't given histrionic acting, but a performance where a slight widening of the eyes, twitching of a jaw muscle, a gaze held a little long, convey what we need to know about Captain Wentworth's inner thoughts. His blondness contrasts with the darker coloring of the other young males and lends him a golden air. I think Penry-Jones is a fine actor, and found it sad that he writes in his quotes on his profile that "I've worked for years to get the career I have now, so to find I need a break is quite disappointing!". He has won two acting awards to date and he has several projects in the works, so I hope that he has received the break he wished for.Some see Persuasion as a book of a revenant made human, others as a second chance at love in a time of social change. If I had written the explanation of how Anne's home became Captain Wentworth's wedding gift to her, Sir Walter would have been totally bankrupt and forced to sell, William Elliot so disgraced that he renounced his entailment, and the duplicitous Mrs. Clay out of the Elliot's life forever.