Film Review: PERSUASION (2022): Dakota Johnson Stars in a Somewhat Clueless Jane Austen Adaptation

Persuasion Review

Persuasion (2022) Film Review, a movie directed Carrie Cracknell, written by Ron Bass, Alice Victoria Winslow and Jane Austen and starring Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Henry Golding, Richard E. Grant, Ben Bailey Smith, Yolanda Kettle, Jordan Long, Simon Paisley Day, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Lydia Rose Bewley, Agni Scott, Stewart Scudamore, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Izuka Hoyle, Hardy Yusuf and Jake Siame.

A Jane Austen adaptation that breaks the fourth wall by having its lead character communicate with the audience could work. It just doesn’t work as well as it could have in director Carrie Cracknell’s, at times, clueless adaptation of Austen’s final novel, Persuasion. Does this mean the Netflix movie’s star, Dakota Johnson, will hurt her career by starring in the new film as the beloved heroine, Anne Elliot? As if. Johnson may be one of the best things about the picture even though there’s not much dramatic substance to the film which is based on a book with a lot of thematic substance.

This film opens with a modern day vibe to the old school literary premise as Anne revels in being single. She’s simultaneously liberated and frustrated, though. It’s such a contemporary version of Anne, though, that I wouldn’t have been surprised if Beyonce’s song, “All the Single Ladies” popped up in the background. It doesn’t. Anne is seemingly not too happy although she seems to live a full enough life without any true passion in it.

Fans of Austen’s novel know the story of how Anne rejected the love of Captain Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) when he was just a lowly sailor. He proposed to her and they were in love but Anne’s family persuaded her to break away from him. Years later, as Anne’s snobbish dad, Sir Walter (Richard E. Grant) finds himself heavily in debt, Wentworth returns to the scene a more well-to-do man who may just have what it takes to win back Anne’s affections. Not that he has to try too hard as both characters still carry feelings towards one another. They are just not totally aware of how the other person feels.

There is some minor salvation to the disappointing execution of this adaptation when one considers the performance of Mia McKenna-Bruce as Anne’s married younger sister, Mary Musgrove, who is so into herself that when some of the characters sneak by her to go for a walk, she gets insulted that they don’t invite her to go with them. Keep in mind, Mary kind of hates to go on walks. McKenna-Bruce lights up the screen and steals the show whenever she appears. She has a charisma that makes her a natural born star.

Serving as the legendary Mr. William Elliot, Anne’s distant cousin, is the versatile Henry Golding who does the best he can to work with Cracknell’s vision of the character. Golding adds some distinct personality and dignity to the character who was stronger on the written page but given the new film’s shortcomings, Golding is not a major problem at all. It’s actually a welcome relief when he comes on screen since Golding gives the audience a feeling of initial respect for his ultimately difficult character.

It wouldn’t be fair to leave out the terrific character actress, Nikki Amuka-Bird, who plays a nice role here that is significantly different than it appears in the book as Lady Russell but, still, Amuka-Bird captures the character’s sorrows perfectly. She’s a nice addition to the film, for better or worse. Interpretation of the performance may be a bit different depending on whether you are a scholar of Austen’s work or not. The quality of Amuka-Bird’s turn cannot be disputed, though, any way you slice it.

Johnson is ultimately too cute for the film’s own good as Anne. She winks at the camera near the end and the audience may be shaking its head in disbelief at how odd this modernized re-telling of the classic story is. Johnson acquits herself admirably in her role, though. She has captured the mannerisms and dialect of this Anne that the story chose to present to audiences rather well. It’s not her fault that the unfortunate casting of Jarvis leaves the chemistry between the characters to be a bit lacking. Jarvis is better on his own and in his interaction with other characters than in his coupling with Johnson.

This re-telling of Persuasion had a lot of potential. It’s not a bad film in retrospect but it’s just peculiar and faulty in one too many respects. As Anne calls the music between her and Frederick a “playlist,” one wonders why they just didn’t make a contemporary dramatic version of the book with comedic overtones instead of leaving audiences to compare the film to much more successful Austen adaptations like Sense and Sensibility or Emma (which inspired 1995’s Clueless). Persuasion ultimately doesn’t hold much of a candle to those earlier 1990’s pictures. I think Netflix viewers will enjoy Persuasion if they haven’t seen it done before or read the source material but literary ignorance doesn’t excuse the movie’s rather obvious shortcomings.

Rating: 6/10

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