Netflix’s “Persuasion” misses the mark for a true Austen retelling

This past Friday, Netflix released the newest adaptation of the Jane Austen novel “Persuasion,” directed by Carrie Cracknell.  

As a long-time Jane Austen fan, I was beyond excited to finally see “Persuasion” get the attention it deserves on the big screen. However, this adaptation sacrificed everything worthwhile and important about the novel for the sake of cheap laughs and reaching a wider audience. On its own, this is an enjoyable film, but for anyone who’s read the book, the blatant disregard for the original work becomes almost uncomfortable to watch. 

The basic plot line of both the novel and this adaptation remains fairly similar. Anne Elliot, played by Dakota Johnson, is an aging single woman who was once engaged to Captain Wentworth, played by Cosmo Jarvis, but her family convinced her to end the engagement due to his lower social and economic position. Eight years later, she is still in love with him and regretting her decision to give him up, when fate has them cross paths once again and eventually, their love is rekindled. While the film stayed mostly true to the plot, keeping all the essential characters and events, the execution is where it all went wrong.  

One of the biggest issues with the film was the “fleabag-esque” attempt at comedy, with an unbearable amount of fourth wall breaks and comments toward the audience. It felt like producers were trying way too hard to replicate previous successful comedies, so much so that it completely distracted from the plot and was uncomfortable to experience as a viewer. It felt overly forced and awkward to have Dakota Johnson constantly making prolonged eye-contact with the camera and smirking toward the audience every 30 seconds. 

The way the characters were presented also drifted far from how Austen originally intended. Anne Elliot is Austen’s oldest, most mature and steadfast heroine, and yet Johnson plays a clumsy, rude and awkward version of Anne. Dakota Johnson is a wonderful actress, and her performance was more than passable, but with such unfortunate writing, there was nothing to save it. 

Writers Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow managed to take one of the most subtle and sophisticated romances of all time and turn it into a cringey, stereotypical romantic comedy that misses all the nuances and subtleties that make Austen’s work worth reading in the first place. Granted, this is definitely one of the more difficult novels to adapt to screen due to the relatively slow-moving plot, but the attempt at modernizing the dialogue while maintaining the regency area setting and values just didn’t click. I understand the struggle to make a story from the 1800s relevant and desirable to a new generation of viewers. However, Austen’s works have truths and ideas that are applicable in every era – and these would shine brightest if not diluted by forced plays at relevance and modernization. 

Movies seldom turn out exactly like their preceding books, and I was by no means expecting a verbatim replica of the novel. But it seems that this movie has completely abandoned the entire spirit and essence of the original story, which for me is unforgivable. Not to say that it was not a decent romance that many people will really enjoy, and the ending was close enough to my expectations that even I was satisfied. Overall, most rom-com lovers will enjoy this film, but Austen fans hoping for a true to novel adaptation should probably look elsewhere. 

Grace Giger can be reached at [email protected].