Persuasion review: Dakota Johnson is delightful as Anne Elliot but Jane Austen’s tale of love gets lost in the sassiness

3/5

Story: Anne Elliot was engaged to Navy Captain Frederick Wentworth seven years ago when she was 19. Wentworth was an undistinguished naval officer then and no one found him to be appropriate for Anne. The constant persuasion of her friends and family members, Anne broke her engagement. But she could never really keep him out of her mind. The film starts when Anne is 26. Her self-obsessed fancy father decides to move to Bath to save some of their decaying wealth and expenses. Wentworth’s sister and her family come to Kellynch Hall, their family estate, as tenants. Anne’s seven years of resistance to keep Wentworth’s thoughts at a bay falls apart like a house of cards.

Review: Persuasion, Jane Austin’s last completed novel is one of her most underrated works. It came to prominence many years later. It is considered by many academicians as one of her most mature writings. Like Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion uses Anne Elliot’s struggle for self-discovery to illustrate how a sensible and responsible woman asserts herself by refusing to abide by social restrictions. The difference, however, is, unlike Elinor Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility or Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, Anne is more mature, in terms of nature and age. She is perhaps Austen’s oldest female protagonist.

The film has its own pace. It follows the same pattern as the recent period pieces of the Regency Era. It is racially much more inclusive with characters from different ethnicities shown in the film. It is definitely Dakota Johnson, who leads the film with her witty, captivating and deeply emotional performance.

However, ever since the drop of its trailer, Persuasion has continued to draw the flak from the Austen fans for one major reason: it supposedly trivialises the author's serious take on 1810s society. The fans felt that the film version of their favourite story is just a fluffy, mushy rom-com garnished with wit and humour.

After the release of the film, it is indeed evident that Carrie Cracknell’s cinematic adaptation is a deviation from Austen’s novel in terms of mood and flavour which would have been completely justified had it not been a half-baked Hollywood romcom. The humour seems to be a little out of place and without delving into the moot point of the novel – the dilemma of the aristocratic society in the 19th century – the film focuses more on the monotonous soliloquy of Anne.

Dakota Johnson is the driving force of the film. She seems delicate yet resilient in her portayal of Anne. Mia Mckenna-Bruce also presents a very convincing portrayal of Mary Elliot, Anne's over-the-top younger sister. Along with her, Nia Towle as Louisa Musgrove looks very convincing. Cosmo Jarvis is dashing and fits in the charactor of Wentworth to the T. Veteran actor Richard Grant seems to be a waste as Sir Walter Elliot as we barely get to see him. 

Verdict: If you are a fan of Downton Abbey, Bridgerton and any such Regency Era extravaganza, you will like Persuasion also. Despite all the lacuna, the film is a comfortable watch full of the British aristocratic brouhaha. It offers the glitz and glamour with elaborate costumes and palatial estates, but it fails to offer the nuanced sense of the screen adaptations of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility.