Modern Persuasion

What a disappointment. Had high hopes especially with Alicia Witt and Bebe Neuwirth.

But though based on the Austen novel, this movie lacks the integrity, intelligence and charm of Austen. Also worth noting that Persuasion is more serious than Austen's other work.

In its modern interpretation, the movie essentially celebrates consumerism, lack of ethics at work, rampant EEO violations at work, work conflict of interest, snarky objectification etc. Basically the Sex and the City version of Austen.

But even as a standard rom-com without the Austen reference, the whiny characters result in a charmless movie.

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.

I was hoping this would be a nice little rom com to pass an hour or so.. based on Jane Austen with a decent cast it should have been good... unfortunately not.. as with so many films currently, most of the focus seems to have been on WOKE box ticking rather than the actual storyline, characters or dialogue.

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.

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.