cnycitylady
In this adaptation of Persuasion you get the book almost entirely verbatim. The scenery is lush and alive but at the same time dull. It represents wonderfully how our heroine Anne sees life both before and after her Captain has come home, and both before and after he wins her heart a second time.You really see how embarrassed she is upon his return, you see how much she still loves him but how she will not be the one to stand in his way of true happiness. The characters all come to life and the actors bring their own take on all of them. Any lover of Jane Austen will appreciate how well this movie was made. This is one of the best book to movie translations ever seen on screen. 9/10
TheLittleSongbird
I absolutely loved this Persuasion, for me it is a winner both as an adaptation and on its own merits and one of my personal favourite adaptations of the books of Jane Austen. The story is beautiful and emotional, and while not always true in essence the characters are interesting and not dull. The adaptation is rather short though, but it doesn't entirely matter when it is done so well. Persuasion looks wonderful too. The costumes, locations and photography look stunning, while the piano music that accompanies the adaptation is simple and beautiful without ever being repetitive. The dialogue is sophisticated and the acting is great, complete with solid support turns from Simon Russell Beale, Susan Fleetwood, Sophie Thompson and Corin Redgrave and wonderful lead ones from Amanda Root and particularly Ciaron Hinds. In conclusion, a beautiful adaptation. 9/10 Bethany Cox
didi-5
Persuasion is perhaps not so obvious a choice to adapt from Jane Austen's work as her better known novels, but it still a rattlingly good love story. Like Mansfield Park, it features the navy for many of it's main male characters, but the heroine, Anne Eliot, is an older and wiser girl than Mansfield's Fanny Price.This adaptation is fairly short, around 1 hour 40 minutes, but it does remain fairly close to the book. Amanda Root is an excellent Anne, while her snobbish father, sister, and friend are played respectively well by Corin Redgrave, Phoebe Nicholls, and Susan Fleetwood.Captain Wentworth and Mr Eliott are perfectly cast - Ciaran Hinds shows reserve, regret, and restraint in his portrayal of a man already scarred by rejection and scared to hope, while Samuel West is foppish but not silly as the opportunist cousin seeking a fortune.Persuasion looks great despite it's limited budget, and engages itself to viewers in an understated way - all the better for it.
gradyharp
PERSUASION together with NORTHANGER ABBEY were posthumous novels by Jane Austin (published 1817) and reflect the position of a novelist whose latter days mirror a younger, wonderful bright spirit and yet soften the social and feminist darts she so successfully hurled at society in her famous earlier works. This particular film adaptation by Nick Dear of PERSUASION respects not only the spirit of the novel but also the station of the author. Under Roger Mitchell's keen direction this cinematic reenactment of the belated flowering of a Anne Elliot's eight year thwarted longing for the love of naval officer Frederick Wentworth, all due to the 'impropriety' of Wentworth's financial standings of the past, is placed before us as a quietly gentle song, one that still places the scrutinizing Austen microscope on the social mores of the time and the bows to class distinctions that serve as the matrix for Austen's novels.The cast is excellent, with Amanda Root suitably in the background as Anne Elliot and Ciarán Hinds as the wise and slightly weathered Captain Wentworth. But their superb performances would not be as credible were it not for the large cast of fine actors playing the superficial silly sisters and cousins and the haughty ladies as well as the warm and worthy ones. This is first rate ensemble acting, allowing the quiet pulse of Austen's Anne to beat softly behind longing eyes, making her plight and ultimate reward for perseverance step stage front at the end of the film. The music of Chopin and Bach flavor the score by Jeremy Sams and the presence of Rosa Mannion, soprano, singing arias and songs lends both an aural and visual credibility to the atmosphere so ably captured by cinematographer John Daly. This is a satisfying Jane Austen adaptation. Grady Harp
AD
