Modern Persuasion

Boring, bad acting, pointless dialogues. 35 minutes in and it couldn't make me crack a smile, let alone crack up with laughter. Just don't waste your time with it. This is not a comedy, it's the tragedy of acting.

First, I loved it. Obvious, it is far to be a real adaptation of Jane Austen novel. But it seems a sort of eccentric try to seduce. Seductive for spices from millenialls, references to music and cliches. But, after first good parts, a sort of vicious circle, crazy, vulgar, chaotic is present. The fresh air of beginning becomes unrealistic story, too kitsch and less moral. Good points, the cat Lul and Bebe Neuwirth. So, nice if you are not have high expectations about it.

There's very little that's good about this movie, but the worst are the protagonists. No chemistry, no charm, nothing. The actress playing the lead honestly made me cringe. Even teenagers in school plays can act better. She seemed plastic, childish, clumsy (that way of dancing and walking) and just generally bad. Not a sign of the strong lead that Jane Austen wrote. Don't lose two hours of your time watching.

Nominally based on a Jane Austin novel from well over a century ago yet much of the dialog was Gen Z slang, or #Hashtag or something. Bleeper instead of Twitter (before X). But it wasn't all that slang. Grayson claimed not to understand any of it and spoke in his own style. Wren and Owen often quoted Austen. All to say, the dialogue kept me alert. The lifestyles of the characters followed much the same lines as their dialogue generally leaning toward the social media dominated society.

This isn't the cliche laden rom/com, but it is supposed to be a rom/com. That too kept me alert because couples seemed to be hooking up right and left and then sometimes unhooking, but seemingly not the obvious lead couple of Own and Wren. I didn't think Shane McRae had chemistry with Alicia Witt.

I've long been a fan of Witt, but she hasn't been as active acting since this movie as she was before it. She has been concentrating on her music. Her character here was not unusual for her, but I think her performance was not her best and she got lost a little in the crowded field here despite being the headliner.

The 'modern day' working girl patter of this script kept me wondering how long this movie been gathering dust in a can on the shelf of some Toronto warehouse

The performances are pretty good but the script and direction, which somehow manage to make the Austen plot seem plodding, have all the hallmarks of a five year old Canadian Lifetime movie. I can't believe I paid to rent this.