Persuasion

Adrian Shergold's adaptation of Persuasion was the last in the ITV Jane Austen Season, and it ended on a high note. Very different style from the previous two, and is rather sombre in tone, as befits the story and characters in the novel. There is a voice over so as to enable the audience to get closer to the character of Anne Elliot played very well by Sally Hawkins. Rupert Penry-Jones is very good as Captain Wentworth, whose interaction with Anne is concise and to the point. They are not strangers, but they are estranged. Adrian Shergold employs a lot of hand held camera, and uses a lot of close ups in order for the audience to recognise the relationships between characters and their feelings. Quite often Sally Hawkins looks at the camera, and I felt this worked very well. My only slight annoyance with this adaptation was the director's unwillingness to have two people who are talking in the shot at the same time. Preferring to move from a close up of one to a close up of the other (shot reverse shot as it were) continuously. This works well occasionally, but when it is as often as it is in this adaption you become very aware of the camera and its movements, which detracts from the story and the conversation itself. This is my only slight problem with this adaptation. The supporting cast was brilliant, with Amanda Hale brilliantly playing Anne moronic younger sister. Alice Krige was great as Lady Russell, and Anthony Head as Sir Walter Elliot. This is to mention only a few. To say that ITV's Austen Season did not start well would be an understatement. However, with last weeks brilliant Northanger Abbey and this weeks Persuasion they have finished on a high. Each had its own tone and style, and forgetting Mansfield Park, they worked rather well. I would recommend this film to both fans of the book and newcomers to Austen's work. I have deliberately refrained from comparisons between this and the 1995 version, both are very good and this one has some very inventive camera work.

I rather enjoyed this adaption of the novel. I viewed it prior to reading any comments posted. I was very caught up in Anne's feelings, her family use of her as a nursemaid, organizer and overall sport. I liked the segments in which she made eye contact with the viewer on significant points in the story; particularly the expressions of her concealed angst over Capt. Wentworth's inability to forgive her, her emotions when she thinks he is engaged, etc. I also enjoyed the distance they kept, while often making eye contact and sharing many unspoken moments. The diary, the journaling... I love it. I have not read the novel, but will curl up with it on this weekend!

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.

This lovely production has a brooding quality that mirrors the circumstances of the author. Unlike the rest of Austen's heroines, Anne Elliot, in a delicate anxiety-ridden performance by Sally Hawkins, isn't twice as clever as everyone else. She's been "persuaded" to make the wrong choices over and over. Her own character we see emerge in the course of the story, and her defiance of convention, class and family brings us a very "modern" heroine.

Unlike the more sour comments here, I thought the production values exquisite, the cinematography mirrors both the romance Ms. Austen is noted for, but also a melancholy that is at the heart of all of her work. Beautiful scenes, for example, shot on a sea wall with a monochromatic palette very near the color of cold steel, we feel acutely the dilemma of the heroine forced to be in situation after situation where she has to face her past in the presence of her beloved. The beautiful visuals are matched, if not surpassed, by a delicate and evocative musical score.

Anne's redemption comes slowly, perhaps too slowly for the more impatient in the audience. And Rupert Perry-Jones' Captain Rupert all but stops the camera with his impressive portrayal of Captain Wentworth. More empathic than Ms. Austen's usual love interests, Mr. Perry-Jones also stops the hearts of the viewers with his agony, visible to us, but not Anne Elliot.

It would be difficult to pick a favorite out of Masterpiece Theater's "The Complete Jane Austen," but for me, this one might be it. It's economy, lovely cinematography, efficient screenplay, and splendid cast (save Amanda Hale who stops the show every time she appears on screen in a distracting, mannered performance that a director should not have accepted) especially the gentle beauty of Alice Krige as Lady Russell. "Persuasion" is free of the more clever elements that teeter many of Ms. Austen's works, and this production makes the most of a love story whose heroine earns her redemption with courage that is not facile or glib.

To those who think "the book was better," of course. So glad you have your attitude. Pity you can't let go of it and enjoy this fine little production.

I was very impatient to see this adaptation because I had seen adaptations of Jane Austen's Persuasion from 1971 and 1995. I had read this novel and I can say that it belongs to my favourite. I love this adaptation. It made me cry. I very enjoyed Sally Hawkins's and also Rupert Penry Jones 's performance. They fabulous showed us their suffering, hope for their happiness and their love to each other. Yes,there were some differences between the book and the film but it doesn't matter. The camera was very unusual but from my point of view was very good used especially in the final scene when Anne was reading the letter from Captain Wentworth. I especially love the part, when Anne had wounded leg and Captain Wentworth helped her to the carriage. This is the best adaptation of Persuasion I 've ever seen.