Kat's Film Reviews: Persuasion

Monday, August 02, 2004

Persuasion

This is the most non-Hollywood, plain-BBC version of a Jane Austen novel. Everything is as gray as you imagine while reading. Which gives the film that added veracity that is lacking in Emma and to a lesser extent in Sense and Sensibility. In this Austen rendition, a woman who has rejected a marriage proposal earlier in her life (see, they DO have slightly different themes) is confronted by the marriage proposee a decade later. What to do? She is a woman not unlike Emma Thompson's character in Sense and Sensibility -- she keeps her cards close to her chest, yet she feels strongly and deeply. Her fam ily is simply put quite stupid and she suffers heroically until her vindication. It's a well-acted film (except for Amanda Root's huge eyes which get in the way of the story as much as they are a part of the story), and it does its job but it's not as special as Sense and Sensibility. There's nothing wrong with it being the novel on screen, but the inevitable comparison leaves it lacking. So, here's what you've been waiting for -- the order you should see the films in from "worst" to best. Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion (these two are really a tie), Pride and Prejudice (reviewed earlier), and Sense and Sensibility. There. Now get to it.

year: 1995
length: 107 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114117/combined

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