User reviews

For some reason, people seem to leave "Persuasion" out when they are naming Jane Austen adaptations. I find that lamentable, since it is such a wonderful film. It is exceedingly British, which means that Americans might find it a little hard to understand, but personally I think it is superb.

All the acting is stellar; I can't really identify a bad performance. Ciaran Hines especially shines as the warm but reserved Captain Wentworth.

Of all the Jane Austen adaptations (except "Pride and Prejudice") I believe "Persuasion" is the truest to the time period. The characters act within the conventions of regency England and seem to be comfortable doing so.

I would recommend this movie to any Jane Austen lover or a person who enjoys period films or classic literature. A person who does not fall into those categories might enjoy it as well, but is likely to find it slow and difficult to understand.

And the celebration of the ordinary and the idea that true love will out itself whatever the obstacles put in its way.

The casting was inspired and utterly believable in this wondrous adaptation. I never tire of Ciaran Hinds, there seems to be so many layers in what he brings to his far too infrequent roles in films. I believe he is mainly a stage actor.

The story bears truth to Jane Austen's original work, and I am a long time fan of Austen.

Amanda is not glamorous in her role of Anne Elliot. But her truth and honour stand steady in the ebb and flow of the values, minor complaints and minutiae of her family life. It is clear from the beginning that she is the one with all the missing qualities in the others.

Fiona Shaw also captivates in the role of Mrs. Croft who strikes out in a completely different kind of lifestyle for the era, sailing the seven seas with her husband and sharing his adventures.

8 out 10. Well done to all concerned.

I enjoy Jane Austin best of all when it is free of the Hollywood temptation to populate her cast with handsome men and beautiful woman. Anne Elliot is attractive not because she is some buxom blonde, but because her character is intelligent, quiet, and generously caring.

The photography in this film is extraordinary as are all the performances. Colin Redgrave is fabulous as Anne's father, a sniveling social climber, and Samuel West as the seedy relative who tries to get back in the families good graces to make sure that his fortunes are preserved. The actresses playing Anne's two sisters also do a praise worthy job.

I recommend this film highly even if you aren't an Austin fan.

This has got to be the most watchable Jane Austen adaptation since the recent influx. Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds are simply the best at conveying unrequited love. One is not blindsided by the big names and distracting beauty of those that have filled the roles of more recent Austen films, and that's how it should be. The performances by Sophie Thompson (Emma's sister), Phoebe Nicholls (remember "Brideshead Revisited"?), and Corin Redgrave is enough to make this movie recommendable, but the 2 main characters are absolutely superb and sympathetic without being sappy or gratuitous. The other supporting cast is phenomenal; what one expects from a nice little English film. Cinematography and soundtrack are fitting as well. Highly recommended!

I've always loved Persuasion. Anne Eliot is the most mature and wise of Austen's heroines, in my opinion, and Amanda Root is excellent as this conflicted and genuinely good person. All the supporting actors are wonderful, and very true to the original source. I highly recommend it!

I loved this film by Roger Michell. Adaptations of great literary classics are fraught with dangerous shoals which have all been blithely avoided in this superb adaption of Jane Austen's masterpiece about love.

There isn't a false move in the entire enterprise. The casting is perfect and the performances flawless.

Special kudos to Amanda Root's brilliant, subtle performance as the heroine Anne Elliot. Ciaran Hinds, as Captain Wentworth, is virile, handsome and highly attractive as the lonely sea-farer come to land after years of fighting in the Napolianic wars.

Not only is this a ripping love story it is imbued with great humor and pathos as well.

There is nothing "high-fallutin'" about it either. Not for one instant does the nasty face of preciosity enter in. The film speaks TO the viewer not at him from a high place.

There are some brilliant vignettes, notably in the person of Cinnamon Faye as the honorable Miss Carteret. She doesn't have a single word to utter but in her facial mannerisms conveys a hilarious portrayal of the empty-headed daughter of the nasty Viscountess Dalrymple. Only in the very last scene does Ms Faye utter and that is simply to emit the silliest sneeze I've ever heard. One of the brilliant and rare moments of exquisite comedy to be seen in a film.

Other standouts in the cast are John Woodvine and Fiona Shaw as the Admiral and his devoted wife. Sophie Thompson turns in a wonderful performance as the ever-whining, obnoxious younger sister, Mary, who, along with the elder Elliot daughter, Elizabeth, burden the long-suffering Anne with their uselessness. Phoebe Nicholls, of Brideshead Revisted fame (she was Sebastian Flyte's youngest sister Cordelia) contributes yet another wonderful performance in her career, as the ill-tempered Elizabeth, ultimately conveying the tragedy of the burgeoning spinster in the last scene.

Even if great literary classics aren't your "bag" don't miss this minor masterpiece if you happen to love great film-making.

Being a Jane Austen novel (this edition brought to the screen courtesy the BBC), you know it's primarily a chick flick, a romance novel with old English spoken, very nicely photographed with nice period sets and scenery and some interesting women to view.

This seems to be the case in most of the films, a la the famous combination of Merchant-Ivory. While this isn't that duo, it's still a decent version of this famous story.

What's different about this is the leading actress: Amanda Root, who plays "Anne Elliot." In America, this is not a lady whom we are familiar with, so she was a new "face" for me, as well. I liked her. I've heard criticism of her looks. You don't have to be glamorous to be accepted as a fine female actor. She was excellent in her role and just the looks on her face, particularly the sad looks, spoke more "volumes" than any dialog could manage.

Everything about this movie is perfection. Watch it and you'll agree.

I really enjoy period movies; I really enjoy Jane Austen stories. It's hard for me to dislike anything that falls in these categories. I would not say that I did not enjoy this movie; Ciaran Hinds is wonderful, the Crofts are immensely lovable, I was amused by Sophie Thompson as the self-centered Mary Musgrove, I even liked to dislike Sir Elliott. But Amanda Root as Anne Elliott sometimes gets on my nerves, with her "poor me" expressions and her sad puppy eyes. It was too much; Jane Austen heroes - and heroines - are all about hiding true emotions in public in order to appear as composed as possible at any time. I had a really hard time to believe people would not have seen through Anne's displays of emotion. However, I must say that as I've watched the movie several times, I notice it less, and it doesn't get on my nerves as much anymore. But I have to say it's the one thing that stuck out for me on first viewing, and I found it very distracting, and hard to identify with her because of that.

This is the quintessential adaptation of Jane Austen's "Persuasion". The story of second chances for a young attachment to be re-kindled after 8 years separation.

The novel is beautifully rendered from start to finish. There is no inaccuracy, save maybe in the description of who is "sandy haired" and who is not. Mrs. Clay, Mrs. Smith... every character comes to life as if taken right off the page. At first, I didn't imagine Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth as the figures of Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds but they inhabit those characters so fully that I was quickly carried away to the world of the novel. Newer adaptations don't come close to the charm, wit and tender feelings of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I don't know why they would even try after seeing this.

I was shocked to find that there was no synopsis in this IMDB entry. There were no pictures and no reviews. It was as if it had been erased from recorded memory. AND YET

If you are familiar with the novel, you will find this adaptation perfection! Prepare to be enchanted.

Simply perfect! From the cast to the production design and direction, this bbc film is the best and most definitive version of Jane Austen's last and (for me) best novel. Anne Eliot as played by Amanda Root starts out as tired and pale when we first meet her, as her previously rejected suitor Captain Wentworth returns. Ciaran Hinds is probably a little old, but the perfection of Fiona Shaw, Corin Redgrave, Sophie Thompson and pretty much everyone else raises this film. Shout out to that gorgeous opera song too. A masterpiece!

Firstly the good points. Beautifully filmed with authentic on location shooting in Bath and the countryside. The village scenes are straight out of an 18th Century painting.

Simple and effective use of piano music as a score.

The great fault is the casting of the leads. Cirian Hinds is the least romantic looking actor. He has such a fierce forbidding face suitable for character roles but totally wrong for a man in love. Amanda Root is just too plain. I know she is supposed to be bordering on old maid but she is just so insipid looking no one could carry a torch for her. There is no chemistry between them.

What a waste of a good production. I don't recommend you watch this or it will spoil your image of the story.

Following in the BBC's fine tradition of producing outstanding costume dramas through the 1970's and 1980's, including versions of Jane Austen's novels, this Bafta award-winning co-production, with WGBH and Sony amongst others, of `Persuasion' (her final complete work published mid rewrite in 1818, the year after her death), was made in 1995 with a stellar cast of British stage actors, many from the Royal Shakespeare Company with numerous TV credits.

The film's events converge on the time Napoleon has been banished to Elba and the Battle of Waterloo of 1815 is still a year away. Among the servicemen returning home is Captain Frederick Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds) who has been at sea for eight years since Anne Elliot's (Amanda Root) rejection of his marriage proposal. The Captain is now a man of prosperity and social rank while his former nineteen-year-old love interest has matured into a ‘faded and thin' old maid of twenty-seven in service to her family. Anne has lived to regret her mistake in being persuaded by her friend and patroness, Lady Russell (Susan Fleetwood, `Heat and Dust', who sadly died the year `Persuasion' was released), to refuse Wentworth as a man of unsuitable temperament. Whilst his affection would now seem to be directed towards her brother-in-law's sister, Louisa Musgrove (Emma Roberts), Anne's only romantic hope lies in the dubious and underhand attentions of her cousin William Elliot (an obsequious Samuel West, who was memorably the ill-fated Leonard Bast in `Howards End'). However, the accident on the Cobb at Lyme Regis requires Anne's sensible advice on how to handle the crisis and eventually leads to a second chance for her. Incidentally the Cobb was to play another starring role in John Fowles' `The French Lieutenant's Woman', with Karel Reisz' 1981 dramatic movie version embellishing it with a strikingly cloaked Meryl Streep braving the elements, ensuring that it will remain a tourist attraction in perpetuity.

Ostensibly with concern over the intellectual inequality of Captain Benwick's sudden attachment to Louisa after the accident, Captain Wentworth makes the impassioned declaration to Anne regarding his friend's broken hearted loss of his fiancee: `A man does not recover from such a devotion to such a woman, he ought not, he does not', but is patently reflecting on his own lasting strong feelings for Anne. Surely it is wiser to recognise when adoration for one person is no longer appropriate and a chance may lie with someone else. The supposed difference between the sexes regarding fidelity is discussed with Jane Austen adding the comment to her argument that the authors who view women as more fickle, have all been men. This last remark in the film is rather improbably but modernly given to Anne, who also makes the bold claim for her sex that it is capable of `loving longest when all hope is gone.' It is not a question of gender but of genetic makeup and whether you are truly monogamous, as Western religions and society would decree us to be, or true to yourself.

Although comfortable, life must have been dreadfully dull at times for the women in this world who could not relieve their tedium as their menfolk would by going off to war. This observation is endorsed by the couple of scenes depicting a concert and an evening of card playing, tinged with amber candle light infusing gentle nostalgic warmth to the proceedings which is at odds with the atmosphere of bored ritualistic entertainment. The different levels of lighting are used to subtle effect here and contrast with the cold glare of Ang Lee's brilliantly lit interiors in his working of Austen's first novel `Sense and Sensibility', also produced in the same year.

Amanda Root (`Mortimer's Law', and as Fanny Price, another of Austen's independent women, in `Mansfield Park' for BBC Radio 4) is brilliant as the quiet understated heroine with luminosity to her face that beautifully transcribes the full gamut of emotions she experiences from servitude to the blossoming of love. Her co-star, Ciaran Hinds (`The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover') is equally gifted of expression, with a barely repressed anger and resentment towards Anne, under the guise of curt civility that eventually he is forced to recognise masks his continuing passion for her. Interestingly over the next two years both leads went onto appear in different versions of Jane Eyre, with Amanda Root well cast as the kindly schoolteacher Miss Temple in Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 version and Ciaran Hinds as a suitably anguished Mr Rochester in Robert Young's 1997 TV adaptation.

Jane Austen's fable may be recognised as the classic fairy tale of Cinderella, of a good hearted and dutiful daughter put upon by her foolish and snobbish father and cruel sisters, but who is eventually saved by her true prince. With great effect, the author adds to the romance her wit and sense of humour to explore the characteristics of the genteel world she lived in with all its human frailties. Nick Dear's screenplay, together with Roger Michell's necessarily less frantic direction than in `Notting Hill', adroitly captures the essence of Austen's narrative to provide one of the finest visual interpretations of her work. Strong supporting performances are also given by the ensemble of Corin Redgrave (`Enigma') as the supercilious father; Sophie Thompson (`Emma') and Phoebe Nicholls (`The Elephant Man') as the far from ugly sisters of hypochondriac Mary and haughty Elizabeth; and Fiona Shaw (`Jane Eyre') and John Woodvine (`Wuthering Heights') as the companionable Crofts.

Obviously complying with its `Beautiful People' culture the original cover of the American video version replaced the demure leads with two glamorous models, as a spokeswoman for Columbia Tristar in California has said, `I guess to make it a little more seductive to us over here'. Nonetheless, it is pleasing to read that this film was well received in the States especially as it remained true to its British identity, and therefore set an exemplary standard in not pandering to an anticipated overseas market by using well-known international stars.

This is a very well put together, and yet very fragile movie that shows its budget constraints all too well. Beautifully acted and written, the direction unfortunately reveals the boxy nature of a TV screen. But despite the lack of impressive cinematography, the scenes are set up extremely well. The use of staging and visual metaphor are jaw-droppingly fantastic. Austen's relatively simple potboiler has been turned into a work of visual art that reveals the director's love for the material.

The music is done perfectly - it doesn't overpower or ever impose interpretation, instead it is just enough to maintain focus on the story. And I love the understated nature of the characters. It is easy to spot the hypocrites, but you can see why they are the way they are. It would be very easy to make Mr. Eliot into a simpering, unctious idiot - instead, he is played as a gentleman. It makes Anne a better character, and it makes the movie a better experience.

The recently released DVD provides a wonderful opportunity to revisit this exquisitely done Austen. Her usual themes of elligible young women and men, their social positions, and their incomes, are very much in evidence; however here there is something a bit quieter and more deeply felt, as two special people get a second chance at happiness. The direction is remarkably fine-tuned, and the production makes a welcome attempt to portray a more realistic glimpse of the life of various classes during the period than is usual. The flamboyant period costumes are particularly amusing, and the sight of the naval men striding along jettys in uniform with their very striking hats is one that has always stuck in my mind.

I had read the book also listened to a BBC Radio version of some years ago with Juliet Stephenson which was very fine. But as I began to watch this film version I had an increasing mixture of admiration for the costumes, interiors and cast yet misgivings.

The dramatic centre is Louisa's plummet from a height onto cold hard stone at the Cob at Lyme. Here in this film version following the fall, Captain Wentworth steps back and stands gazing and silent like a spare person at a wedding. Louisa is lying on her side pink-faced but unconscious. Anne has immediately rushed forwards, attends to Louisa and at the same time barks out urgent clear directions to everyone else. The book however tells it very differently:

"There was no wound, no blood, no visible bruise; but her eyes were closed, she breathed not, her face was like death. The horror of the moment to all who stood around! Captain Wentworth, who had caught her up, knelt with her in his arms, looking on her with a face as pallid as her own, in an agony of silence. "She is dead! she is dead!" screamed Mary, catching hold of her husband, and contributing with his own horror to make him immovable....."Is there no one to help me?" were the first words which burst from Captain Wentworth, in a tone of despair, and as if all his own strength were gone. "Go to him, go to him," cried Anne, "for heaven's sake go to him. I can support her myself. Leave me, and go to him. Rub her hands, rub her temples; here are salts; take them, take them."

Not an exaggerated description of people frozen in horror, Jane Austen hardly needed to add: "The horror of the moment to all who stood around!", it is powerfully clear from her description. Instead the truly daft film treatment of this scene robs it of almost all its drama and believability: Captain Wentworth had just fought in the Napoleonic Wars, presumably thoroughly used to injury, death - and killing*. His evident horror was an indication of the depth of his emotional involvement. That he stood back and did nothing while Anne instantly rushed forwards with the practised speed of a Mash medic is entirely preposterous.

In the book, Wentworth is first to move but even as a Man of Blood, is almost overcome with emotion. Anne's thoughts and words are first for him: "Go to him, go to him then to give directions for others to attend to Louisa. The scene unites Wentworth and Anne in their mutual concerns and as the only two taking effective action. What a piece of writing! It is clear to see why Persuasion was such a best seller as well as respected literature.

Of all actors in the world who could have played this heady mixture of horror and anguish, Ciaran Hinds is surely the leader, yet he is denied it here. He is though superb in the excruciatingly awkward encounters with Anne, all the intricate nuances of the halting delivery as he struggles with himself over choosing the right words is absolutely precise. Amanda Root as Anne unfortunately is just not right, not in acting in presence or in appearance, not in this part at least. Anne was strong self contained and wise but Jane Austen deliberately had placed her in possibly the most testing circumstances, torn in all directions, as her readers all understood and thrilled to. Strong people who are nevertheless tested to their limits is the trick to convey drama - as Jane Austen at least knew well. She was a very artful and skilled writer.

6.5 out of 10

*I have just discovered C S Lewis's description of a Knight

A real pleasure to watch and by far superior to the later version with Sally Hawkins. (Sally Hawkins was fine but the whole later production looks like a cartoon version compared with this elaborate rendering of Jane Austen's world.) Amanda Root as Anne Elliot is perfect as the underestimated and unloved daughter of a spendthrift snob of a father and a stepmother right out of Grimm's fairy tales. (Not to speak of being henpecked by her hyper nervous younger married sister.) They filmmakers also managed to make Amanda Root look rather unattractive at the beginning and one wonders how any man could have been so much in love with her as the still lamented Frederick Wenthworth, whom she sent away on the heavy influence of her family, because he was a nobody with no regular income at the time. Years have past when we comes back into her neighbourhood, apparently haunting her serenity and feeling her more wrong then ever before. Cairán Hinds is equally good as the former lover Wenthworth, still hurt and trying hard to ignore Anne and seemingly having a good time without her. Once Wentworth pops up every now and then we notice that Anne begins to look more pretty, even the presence of the man she thinks she has lost forever make her look so much better.

The beauty of this version is not only grounded on the excellent cast but also in the magnificent eye for details, and, although only running a mere 100 minutes, gives the viewer the appropriate feeling of time passing by very slowly (don't get me wrong, I don't speak of the pace inside the story), but time that painfully slows down when being with people you despise or you feel dispised by. I always cherished this book by Jane Austen very much and I'm so glad that finally I found this film that really does it justice!

Granted, I have not read the book, but I have read several of Jane Austen's novels and have seen many movie/TV-movie remakes of her work. I find this to be one of the lesser remakes (though to be fair, the only "Persuasion" adaptation I've seen- maybe it's the fault of the book.)

I did kind of like the fact that all the characters were meant to look like "real" people. No one was unrealistically attractive. And I enjoyed the subtle transformation of Anne from unattractive to relatively attractive at the end of the picture, a detail I only barely noticed consciously. The actors were fine.

My main problem was the pacing/editing. Now I'm not the kind of person who needs an action flick pacing where every second is exciting - I do like to see the characters grow, to see the passing of time, to see them just being themselves, and I also realize that life (at least for women) was much more sedate back then..... but even given all that it was just too slow. For example, the scene where they all just stood around on the beach. Maybe I am missing something by not having read the book but I felt that that scene had nothing to add to the movie and it was just wasting time.

Once again, this may just be how the book was, but I found the ending to be very abrupt. I felt that the scene in the Elliot's party was a set up for a huge confrontation, with cousin Elliot's behaviro revealed, with the snobby dad refusing Wentworth, etc. Maybe this is just the Hollywood trained mind, but I was actually very startled when the last scene (don't want to ruin it by saying) came on.

In summary, it was decent enough, but I think I'll stick with Sense & Sensibility (yes, they are too beautiful, but I adore Ang Lee & Emma Thompson!) or the BBC version of Pride/Prejudice as my favorite Austen adaptations.

This viewing has inspired me to steal the book from my boyfriend's bookcase to read - perhaps it will give me a fresh perspective on the film.

This is Jane Austen's most adult work, and therefore most subtle. The movie adaptation is faithful to her story, taking it's time to develop the characters, and it is beautifully acted and staged. The strange changes to the Mr. Eliot story from book to screen make no sense whatsoever but are hardly a detriment to the story as a whole. This is one of my favorite Austen books and Austen adaptation. The casting is perfect; particularly fine are Ciaran Hinds as Wentworth, Amanda Root as Ann, Sophie Thompson as Mary and Corin Redgrave as Sir Eliot, but truly, the entire cast is flawless. I consider this a must-see movie for anyone who loves Jane Austen, or intelligent screenplays.

If you have to believe what they say in the trailer: 'If you adored "A Room with a View', than you will cherish "Persuasion", than this must be an excellent movie. Well, perhaps most people believe that is correct (although I believe it is only some good promotion talk), but in my opinion "A Room With a View" was a lot better than this one. I already hear several of you think that you know what kind of a person I am. A young male (that part is true) who doesn't like romantic movies, but who wants cheap action flicks with a lot of action and shooting. Wrong, I've got several romantic movies in my private collection, but this one will never be a part of it...

The story is situated in England in 1814. The 27-year old Anne Elliot lives an oppressive life with her snobbish father and elder sister Elizabeth. She should have been married eight years earlier, but being the daughter of a financially troubled aristocratic family, she was persuaded to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a promising young seaman with poor family connections. Now, eight years later her father rents out the family estate to Admiral Croft and Anne finds herself confronted with Wentworth again, because Mrs. Croft is Frederick's sister. The only difference now is that Frederick has made a nice career at the navy and has become a rich and successful Captain. He is a highly eligible bachelor now and can choose the hand of every lady he desires. At first he courts one of Anne's distant relatives, but soon he realizes that he still has feelings for Anne...

I'm sure that many people, and especially women, will love this movie. It's a love story situated in the 19th century and for many that's already enough to like it. Personally I'm not too keen on it (it gives me the creeps if I'm honest), but I know that there are many people who love the high society uniforms and clothing, the architectural style, the way of interaction between people,... as they are shown in this kind of movies. If you ask me it is all too pompous and over the top, but that's only my opinion of course, you are allowed to have your own. And even though I don't really like the way everything looks or the story on itself, I must admit that the acting in this movie is more than OK. In fact, I might even say that it is the acting that saves it from a bad score. I don't really know any of the actors, I guess they play in this kind of movies more often, but they certainly know what they are doing. That's why I still give this movie a 6/10. The fans will love it, but I'm not one of them.

I watched this in a Jane Austen frenzie, after Pride and Prejudice BBC series, which of course might have affected my good judgement. The reason on which I was left unsatisfied with this Persuasion is Annes' character herself and the way they portrayed her. I thought she swapped between mental retardation and exaggerated eagerness... alongside with other moments of lack of decorum, for her time, in her interactions with the opposite sex, which supported my theory of desinhibited behavior. I have to say I haven't read the book and that Jane Austen really might have created a character that fits right into this description. However, I felt her lacking in depth of emotion to be a real Austn heroine, never really seeing much more than eagerness, with a sort of empty expression. She reminded me very much of Emily Watson in Breaking the waves, and you see where this leads me to, once more. The other characters I was happy with, especially her sisters and father. Some other reviewers said it would be hard not to drop a tear, but really, I am such a hearthrob and my face was always dry! I guess I might give it another shot someday. And what kind of ending was that?

Whoever adapted this for the screen did a BAD job. He left out some very important parts and just flat out changed others. This is my favorite Jane Austen novel, so any adaptation I see should be as true to the novel as possible. He turned Mrs. Smith into an insignificant, silly gossip and she was very important in the novel. If he was going to do this to her he should have just thrown her out all together. I also thought the casting of the main characters was very bad. He is too old and ugly to be Captain Wentworth and she is not pretty enough to be Anne. It is just a shame.