By: Andrew Wing

Persuasion is a 2022 American drama film directed by Carrie Cracknell in her feature film directorial debut, from a screenplay by Ron Bass (who wrote the screenplay for Rain Man) and Alice Victoria Winslow, based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. It stars Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades film series, Suspiria), Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth, Calm With Horses), Nikki Amuka-Bird (The Omen, Old), Mia McKenna-Bruce (The Dumping Ground, Get Even), Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I, Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins).

The film takes place eight years after Anne Elliot (Johnson) was persuaded not to marry a dashing man of humble origins, Captain Frederick Wentworth (Jarvis). However, when they meet again, Anne struggles with attempting to seize her second chance at true love.

The film was released on Netflix on July 15, 2022.

THE GOOD

I have been doing a lot of Netflix and chilling recently. Three of my last four reviews were on Netflix films, my most recent being on the animated adventure film The Sea Beast (see my full review here), so I figured I might as well make it four out of five with Persuasion. I watched it with my girlfriend, who was definitely a little bit more excited about it than I was, but nevertheless, I was pumped to see Dakota Johnson again who was amazing in her other film that came out earlier this year in Cha Cha Real Smooth (see my full review here). And while I have never read a Jane Austen novel, I have liked a lot of the films from this century that were film adaptations of her work from Pride & Prejudice in 2005 to Emma in 2020. So with all that said, was Persuasion another in the long list of great film adaptations of Austen’s work, or was this a bad apple? Keep reading to find out!

You’ll just have to wait a little longer for that answer, but if there is one thing I can say for certain about Persuasion, it is that Dakota Johnson is on quite a roll. Seriously though, ever since leaving the Fifty Shades films in her rearview mirror, she hasn’t really missed. And while I didn’t like this movie as much as some of her ones from the past year, her performance was still very good. Her accent was fantastic, and she just brought the character of Anne Elliot to life in such a believable way, and I’m saying that without having even read the book. I honestly thought she carried this film from start to finish, and I just continue to be impressed by Johnson as an actress and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

The second best part of the film in my opinion after Johnson’s lead performance was the production and costume design of the film. First, with the production design, it was just ridiculous. That’s honestly probably my favorite part of these types of movies is just getting teleported back in time and getting to see how luxurious everything was. And as for the costumes, those were quite luxurious too. Sure, you can go ahead and make fun of me for praising the costumes everyone was wearing, but I’m an Oscar guy, and they have an award dedicated to costume design, so I’m not ashamed. Truthfully speaking though, the costumes in this were top-notch and it could definitely be in the mix when it comes to getting a nomination which would make it the second Jane Austen film adaptation to do so in just three years after Emma got nominated back in 2020.

Continuing with the visuals of this film, they really didn’t skip a beat because the cinematography we got from Joe Anderson was great. I don’t know where the film was shot, but wherever it was, I need to go there before I die because some of the shots were beautiful. There were some other technical elements that need some love too. As for the editing, I thought it was well done by Pani Scott, as I thought the film flowed nicely. And lastly, all of the music in Persuasion was solid too from the score we got thanks to Stuart Earl and also a soundtrack that included “Quietly Yours”, by Birdy.

THE BAD

Alright, time to be the bad guy. This movie is fine. My girlfriend enjoyed it, and she is going to be mad at me over this, but I just had a lot of problems with Persuasion as a whole. For starters, I thought the entire rest of the cast aside from Dakota Johnson just didn’t provide much of anything. Cosmo Jarvis, who plays Captain Frederick Wentworth, probably has the second most screen time, but I just didn’t like that casting. I didn’t buy his character, and I just hope his next performance is something different. Also, none of the supporting actresses stood out to me, and what was arguably more annoying than any of that, was the fact that they had Richard E. Grant and Henry Golding, two fantastic actors, in the cast and they were both terribly underutilized here in my opinion.

The next problem I had with Persuasion is one that I am seeing a lot more of from other critics than my first personal complaint, and that is the criticism of them trying to over-modernize the source material into the film. And after watching the movie, I can agree with that without having even read the book because there’s no way some of the things said in this film were said in a novel from the early 19th century. I mean I get it, you have to try and appeal to the target audience, but trying to be like Adam McKay’s The Big Short with all of the fourth wall breaks was not how to do it. There were so damn many times Dakota Johnson was talking to me via breaking the fourth wall and I was getting so irritated, and that speaks volumes considering I liked her performance. I don’t know, maybe we as a film society just need to take a break from Jane Austen movies, because I for one am not begging for one anytime soon after this.

THE VERDICT

Despite another above-average performance from Dakota Johnson, Persuasion just wasn’t my cup of tea. The visuals and the music were very well done, but the underutilization of some big name actors, the over modernization of the source material, and the way too many fourth wall breaks just made this movie unfortunately quite forgettable.