Persuasion

Dear Captain, I take your hand and hope you will forgive me for the trouble I have caused you.

Name: Persuasion

Director: Adrian Shergold

Country: United Kingdom

Year: 2007

Duration: 92 minutes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Synopsis:

A few years back, young Anne Elliot fell in love with officer Frederick Wentworth, but due to his financial status he is considered to be a bad catch and Anne is persuaded to break the relationship off. Eight years later, Wentworth returns to the city with a higher reputation and status. Anne still loves him, but does he still love her?

Review

There are several adaptations of Jane Austen’s books. This time, I will review a 2007 adaptation of the book Persuasion.

Persuasion tells us the story of Anne Elliot, a wise and demure young woman, who’s family demonstrates very little consideration towards.The narrative starts off with a very busy Anne, while the rest of the family, her father Sir Walter Elliot and her older sister Elizabeth, have fun in the garden. It’s with the arrival of Lady Russel, Anne’s godmother, that we learn about the Elliots’ financial difficulties and that the family, after refusing for a long time, has decided to rent Kellynch Hall and move to Bath. The property is rented to the Crofts and that is how Anne ends up meeting once again an old love, Captain Wentworth. The several events that unfold over the course of the film end up forcing both Anne and the Captain to rediscover themselves and each other.

If there is something that I love and that exasperates me in J. Austen’s works are her characters, and they are very diverse! Even though the characteristics of each one are in the performance of the chosen actors, I must confess that I found their performance exaggerated at times and forced also, with the exception of the actress that played Elizabeth Elliot’s character.

As for the technical part, this is a movie with beautiful landscapes and idyllic places, that also has some moments with good photography. In spite of being a bit confusing for the eyes mas that I thought was interesting, was the director’s choice to shoot particular scenes as if they were from Anne’s point of view, as well as the moments in which the actress that plays her, looks at the camera as if trying to say something that we can only guess. As for the characterization, it was excellent. The clothes are gorgeous and seem appropriate for the story’s time period.

Another component that I love in this film is the soundtrack. Martin Phipps is the composer that involves us in Anne and Wentworth’s story. I don’t consider the soundtrack to be too long, but the music follows the scene’s unfolding and provides an enormous emphasis to the agony that accompanies Anne and the Captain’s resentment. With the passage of time, we start to feel the same anxiety as the protagonist and wondering if Wentworth really doesn’t love her anymore. In fact it’s one of the things that saves this adaptation from mediocrity.

The ending, however not surprising, manages to be satisfactory. Some don’t like this adaptation, preferring the one from 1995 (which I haven’t seen yet), and I can understand why. The essence of the work is there, but it has a lot of changes.

Simon Burke, the screenwriter, clearly summed up the book, and although that is understandable, his decision to change things that probably didn’t need to be changed, make it so that this adaptation, in reality, is nothing more than a movie based on a literary work. Even so, I don’t think it is a bad adaptation. To be honest, in spite of it all, it’s one of my favorites.

Whisper of the Heart

Jane Austen was a british author from the XVIII century. Known for the use of irony to criticize the society, she wrote a magnificent romance before she died. Persuasion was her last narrative and it is about a love that had to wait for the best moment to “become true”, but it is also about not letting society crush us with its prejudice.

Austen gives us a general perception on what society was in her time and what she really thought through her characters. In this narrative that could not be more obvious, even though it is subtle. This work charmes me exactly for that, for what is behind every character. The majority is nothing more than a stereotype. Austen set the shift in social status: the appearance of the new rich like Wentworth, that “surpass” the old rich like Sir Walter; and it gives an important message with its protagonist, the wise and altruistic Anne Elliot.

In her time, a 27-year-old woman was already too old to marry or to hope for a better future that didn’t rely on her family’s generosity. However, that is not true like Austen ends up demonstrating in her romance. Deep down, I believe that Persuasion was a gift to herself, since she never married. But we have another example, like the talks about the man and woman’s inconstancy, a clear critique to the poems and articles written about that subject in that time.

The truth is that, in Persuasion, throughout the whole story, we are faced with bad attitudes and rudeness, that end up forcing us, unconsciously, to think if that is right or wrong. It’s a narrative that demonstrates that we don’t always pay attention to those who need it the most for being so focused on our own world, but also makes us wonder how many times we have done things just because others persuaded us, the amount of times that society influences us and we don’t even realize it. The ideal thing is to always follow our intuition, or heart, and think for ourselves! We must look after others just like Anne, but we must never forget about ourselves , like she realizes after eight years. If we are not happy, how can we make others truly happy?

And taking into consideration that it is an adaptation of an 1818 book, that portrays the same time period, I elected it for the topic “A film set in a different historical period” for the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge.

Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (7)