Persuasion

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.

Not the story. This film.

"Persuasion" is my favorite book in the world, and this adaptation has very little in common with it. It's hard to decide where to begin when listing what's wrong with this film, but I will try and say that the absolute worst thing is changing the constancy conversation. In the book, this conversation is between Anne and Harville; it takes place in Bath (towards the end of the story); Wentworth hears it. But, for some bizarre reason, the writers of this film places the conversation in the middle of the story (in Lyme); it's between Anne and Benwick, and Wentworth never hears it.

If he never hears the conversation, then what is the impetus for him to write his letter? None, that's what. They butchered what is arguably the most beautiful love letter in English literature and I cannot figure out why. Instead, they have Anne run. And run. And then run some more. And they have Mrs. Smith run too. Yes, the same Mrs. Smith who's supposed to be an invalid. When I saw this film in a public setting, people laughed, and that's just wrong.

I desperately wanted to love this film, but I just couldn't. Yes, RPJ is eye-candy, but his good looks are just not enough to save this film from being the wretched mess that it is. Don't waste your time or your money on this one.

This current adaptation of Austen's mature novel is very endearing. Rupert Penry-Jones'adept utilization of facial expressions reveal a man who is deeply wounded and angry with good reason, yet subconsciously conflicted. His Captain Wentworth doesn't know if, and how he should proceed. He deftly portrays a spurned lover that is compelled to look back in spite of himself. Sally Hawkins expertly portrays a gentle introvert who hides a long held affection in some compartment of herself. She functions well enough in life, but she does not ,and cannot flourish, and wonders if she ever will embrace abundant happiness......The staging is accurate and the costumes lovely. Kudos to Anthony Head; he flawlessly captures Sir Walter Elliot, the most conceited, clueless genteel idiot who was ever most ingeniously conceived in the mind of a true observer of human nature and character-Jane Austen. We, the viewing public, are both sobered and amused.....

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.