Persuasion [1995]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
After a slow beginning, in which the complex tangle of relationships is initially confusing, this BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, develops into an elegant romantic comedy. Austin combines a subtle dissection of the folly of class with a slow-burning, intensely passionate love story. Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) has loved Captain Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds) ever since she was persuaded to reject him years before. Now he has returned from the Napoleonic wars, but will love be allowed to blossom? Especially when Anne is surrounded by the selfish, petty-minded Mary, misguided by Lady Russell, and burdened by a father obsessed with fairness of countenance above all other considerations. Excepting a basic booklet, on-screen character biographies and a Dolby Digital soundtrack, there is nothing to distinguish this DVD from the video version. The picture is very good, but showing some grain, not exceptional, so unless you have a large television there is little advantage over tape. In any format, what makes this adaptation work is the sharp screenplay by Nick Dear and the naturalistic style of director Roger Mitchell (who joined the A-list with Notting Hill, 1999), together eliciting fine performances from the ensemble cast. Less flamboyant than Pride and Prejudice (1995), this is a civilised treat. --Gary S Dalkin

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Synopsis
A young woman who rejects a young man's proposal meets him again years later; both are still single, but can their relationship begin again...? Based on the novel by Jane Austen. Regency drama.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-07 rating:
Utterly Lovely
Persuasion is my favourite book and this adaptation does it justice. The tone of the film matches the tone of the book: whistful. Anne is beautifully portrayed by Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds is wonderful as the charismatic Captain Wentworth. It's far subtler than the more recent ITV adaptation, and because of that all the more beautiful. Scenes in this film would melt the hardest of hearts, yet it is still funny. The perfect comfort film.

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review by: date: 2008-05-19 rating:
Brilliant sensitive version
I read the reviews and picked this version and have to add my voice to the others! This is brilliantly cast - with an Anne who looks like her bloom has gone, but you can watch her magically blossom as she becomes more hopeful of regaining her lost love! The acting is excellent, although Elizabeth and father are rather overblown, but the book clearly hints that they are. All in all they have taken the mood and meaning of the book and subtly used their cinematic skills to interpret it very effectively, so all the info we lose from not having feelings explained, is acted or implied. Completely brilliant. Job well done. Look no further for a good Persuasion - this is IT!

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review by: Happy Bunny date: 2007-12-28 rating:
The best by far
This is absolutely my favourite T.V. adaptation of a Jane Austin novel. It is a real treat to watch from beginning to end: the whole thing is so well cast that every scene and every character have a charm of their own.

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review by: date: 2007-12-24 rating:
Comfort food for nostalgics that is well cast and crafted
Persuasion (1818) is often thought of as Jane Austen's most 'romantic' novel. Yet Austen's philosophy of love and romance might be quite different to what we understand as romantic today. She repeatedly counselled against a flighty over-indulgence of emotions (e.g. the characters of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility and Lydia in Pride and Prejudice), blessing her heroines with the prudence of rational love and controlled romanticism. Austen astutely recognised that women in the Georgian period, forbidden by custom and status to work beyond the home, were in danger of constructing and seeking to injudiciously act out wildly romantic fantasies. As Anne Elliott tells a naval officer in this brilliant adaptation, "We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You always have business of some sort or other to take you back into the world".

Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds excel as the leads and their on-screen chemistry is unmistakable as smouldering, unexpressed emotions threaten to penetrate the surface of their reserve. Root (who was originally sought by Emma Thompson to play the role of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility) has been frequently patronised on message boards - either consciously or unconciously - for her "plain" appearance, as if actresses must be classically beautiful before they can be considered good. I found that Root performed Anne with grace and intelligent sensitivity; she has the remarkable talent of letting her huge, searching eyes express what could often not be said in that era. Hinds makes for a Captain Wentworth as ruggedly handsome and virile as Firth in the role of Mr. Darcy; Wentworth is as morally principled as him and is a great deal tougher and more robust to boot. In his impassioned declaration to Anne - that "a man does not recover from such a devotion to such a woman, he ought not, he does not" - Hinds skillfully shows that Wentworth is thinking of his own strong, irrepressible feelings for Anne.

The leads are helped by an admirable supporting cast: Simon Russell Beale (as Charles Musgrove), Sophie Thompson (as his hypochondriac wife Mary) and Corin Redgrave (as the snobbish, spendthrift Sir Walter) do especially well, although I found that Mrs Croft (Fiona Shaw) and Lady Russell (played by Susan Fleetwood who died the year in which the film aired) sometimes look too similar to be clearly distinguished from each other.

Persuasion is quieter and more subdued than Austen's more famous novels. Appropriately the musical score is subtle and unobtrusive, complementing rather than overwhelming the dramatic moments of the narrative. Anne, too, makes for a less vivacious and lively heroine than, for example, the much-loved Lizzy Bennet. But this is not a fault: her development into self-conviction and in learning not only to trust her instincts and feelings, but more importantly to act upon them too, make her a paragon in a Georgian society which often sought to repress individual thought and feeling in women. She painfully experiences the pitfalls of letting oneself be guided or influenced by others. As Jane Austen counselled in an earlier novel, "We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be." (Mansfield Park, 1814).


review by: date: 2007-11-04 rating:
Absolutely love it
"Persuasion" is my favourite JA novel and I love this adaptation of it. I have watched it over and over again and simply can't get enough of it! Amanda Root is an excellent Anne Elliot - you really want her to get her man at the end of it, after all that she endures - and Ciaran Hinds is a fantastic Captain Wentworth (and mighty nice to look at too, I might add!). The many glances and the limited conversation with meaningful comments they share is so well done and you really get a sense of the chemistry between them. The rest of the cast was also very well chosen in my opinion; of special note, Sophie Thompson does a wonderful job as Mary and I particularly like Fiona Shaw as Mrs Croft. A very enthusiastic two-thumbs-up from me!

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