I am NOT an adaptation purist if the writers get the heart of the story right. And that just did not happen with this Persuasion. I don't know who Dakota's Anne Elliot was, but she was not Jane Austen's. And yes, the Wentworth was terrible. He talked like he has marbles in his mouth. Agony.
Haha, this is such a late comment, but Persuasion is on my mind right now and I went looking for essays. I also thought about the Bridget Jones comparison. But there are a couple of big reasons that movie works where Persuasion doesn't:
First and foremost, they move it into the modern day, and they never try to make it a direct retelling, it's more an homage than a retelling, a "what if we had this similar kind of situation, in a totally different context?" and it has so much fun doing it. Persuasion is a retelling, but completely changing the heroine for no clear reason.
Second, as you allude to, Bridget Jones gets the *emotional* beats right. Hugh Grant is charming but smarmy from the start; Colin Firth is charming from the start, and becomes more and more so as the film goes on. The chemistry between him and Bridget is built perfectly. So it's a lose adaptation, but it gets the core emotional beats right. Persuasion is sort of the opposite, it's a fairly straight adaptation, but it gets the emotional beats (primarily with Wentworth as you say yourself) wrong, plus it, again, changes the character for no reason.
The sad thing is that there are Jane Austen characters where I think the Fleabag treatment absolutely would work. In different ways, Emma Woodstone and Katherine Moreland are both characters who think they know more than everyone around them, but in the end it turns out they were wrong about a lot of things. And Emma especially, since she's sort of a terrible person but has to figure that out the hard way as the story goes on.
OMG. Thank you. I feel like I have become a Persuasion apologist by default. It's not like I think it's the best movie in the world, or that Dakota is the God's gift to acting, but there is charm! Charm means something! Also, there are SO MANY other terrible romantic comedies. They are released almost daily. I cannot keep up. They all look like they were shot on iPhones. This is not as bad as that. The scenery. The knowing wink-wink humor. The hot mess sister. There are moments. Thanks for recognizing them.
I am NOT an adaptation purist if the writers get the heart of the story right. And that just did not happen with this Persuasion. I don't know who Dakota's Anne Elliot was, but she was not Jane Austen's. And yes, the Wentworth was terrible. He talked like he has marbles in his mouth. Agony.
"Like he has marbles in his mouth," lol, exactly.
When Mary says “despite being the most accomplished decoupage artist of the three of us.” I decided I love this movie!
Haha, this is such a late comment, but Persuasion is on my mind right now and I went looking for essays. I also thought about the Bridget Jones comparison. But there are a couple of big reasons that movie works where Persuasion doesn't:
First and foremost, they move it into the modern day, and they never try to make it a direct retelling, it's more an homage than a retelling, a "what if we had this similar kind of situation, in a totally different context?" and it has so much fun doing it. Persuasion is a retelling, but completely changing the heroine for no clear reason.
Second, as you allude to, Bridget Jones gets the *emotional* beats right. Hugh Grant is charming but smarmy from the start; Colin Firth is charming from the start, and becomes more and more so as the film goes on. The chemistry between him and Bridget is built perfectly. So it's a lose adaptation, but it gets the core emotional beats right. Persuasion is sort of the opposite, it's a fairly straight adaptation, but it gets the emotional beats (primarily with Wentworth as you say yourself) wrong, plus it, again, changes the character for no reason.
The sad thing is that there are Jane Austen characters where I think the Fleabag treatment absolutely would work. In different ways, Emma Woodstone and Katherine Moreland are both characters who think they know more than everyone around them, but in the end it turns out they were wrong about a lot of things. And Emma especially, since she's sort of a terrible person but has to figure that out the hard way as the story goes on.
OMG. Thank you. I feel like I have become a Persuasion apologist by default. It's not like I think it's the best movie in the world, or that Dakota is the God's gift to acting, but there is charm! Charm means something! Also, there are SO MANY other terrible romantic comedies. They are released almost daily. I cannot keep up. They all look like they were shot on iPhones. This is not as bad as that. The scenery. The knowing wink-wink humor. The hot mess sister. There are moments. Thanks for recognizing them.