Persuasion 2007
by Adrian Shergold
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DVD details
Actor: Alice Krige, Anthony Head, Julia Davis, Rupert Penry-Jones, Sally HawkinsDirector: Adrian Shergold
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Jane Austen
Writer: Simon Burke
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Unknown
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-01-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- Jane Austen?s romantic masterpiece comes to DVD in a thrilling new production from the BBC and Masterpiece Theatre. Anne Elliot fell deeply in love with the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth at the age of nineteen. But with neither fortune nor rank to recommend him, Anne was persuaded to break off her engagement. Eight years later, Anne has lived to regret her decision. She never st
DVD Reviews of Persuasion 2007
DVD Review: Too any missed chances with supporting characters
Summary: 3 Stars
Though I've read most of the other novels by Jane Austin--my favorites being Pride And Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (B&N Classics)--I've never read Persuasion. I think that the descriptive statements that accompany the book have put me off for some reason in the past. I was on an Austin kick, however, and decided to view a DVD of the novel. I have to say that I'm much encouraged to read the book itself from what I've seen of the story.
That said, however, I didn't feel that the film itself was exceptional. Perhaps I've seen too many stellar cast versions of other Austin books. The Emma Thompson version of Sense & Sensibility (Special Edition) with Huge Grant, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and a totally amazing cast of British character actors and the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996) would spoil any viewer for anything less.
Rupert Penry-Jones was not as riveting as Fredrick Wentworth as one might have hoped. He lacks the dark brooding and sometimes almost sinister character of an Austin romantic hero. I suspect that his open face and blondness gave him too much of a pleasant "guy next door" air. He gave a very masterful performance as the rejected lover while on horseback accompanying the heroine in her coach, but the stormy weather background and his costume had much to do with it. One can't help feel that Victorian riding boots, panel fronted trousers, white linen cravats and a flowing cape would give most men the look of a romantic hero. It's almost too bad they've given them up these days!
Most of the female characters were very unremarkable, almost forgettable. Sally Hawkins makes a very unprepossessing Anne Elliot. Her Anne seems to revel in the martyrdom of spinsterhood like a sullen 19 year old. Instead of being a beautiful woman of great dignity and poise who has chosen to remain unmarried rather than marry someone other than the love of her life, she seems dumpy. Emma Thompson's Ms Dashwood as the practical mainstay of her own natal family is far less frumpy and moody. When Anne descends the stair in what looks like a gown made from the living room drapes we are doubtlessly intended to contrast this with her sister's fine ball gown and see that Anne is the epitomy of the sensible woman. Instead we feel like she's attempting a "poor little me" routine to gain sympathy. Part of this is the attempted shorthand of the film. We're meant to understand her through her costume. It didn't work.
Jennifer Higham as Louisa Musgrove is almost annoying. Though she doesn't look it, she acts like a girl of 13 or 14 who has a crush on a handsome "older" neighbor and who has yet to decide if she wants to be a little girl and play or an adult and court. She just comes across as totally inappropriate. It is hardly surprising that Captain Wentworth is shocked to discover he has inadvertently "committed himself" to this playful child. It would be like Edward Ferrars finding himself engaged by accident to the youngest Dashwood sister Margaret because they played tag and swords on the manor grounds! What the character did do well was to feed information to the audience about Anne. By contrasting the quiet, unassuming and practical Anne with the light weight antics of Ms Muscove, we see why the hero might have returned after eight years for a second chance.
Probably the greatest missed chance was Julia Davis' Elizabeth Elliot. So much more could have been made of her character than was. I could almost see a performance akin to that of Harriet Walter's Fanny Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility or Juliet Stevenson's Mrs. Elton in Emma. These characters did so much to illuminate the lives and personalities of their respective heroines, they almost carried the story. That's what they're supposed to do. Almost all Austin characters are there to further the story and provide the reader with information. Had the director made better use of Elizabeth's behavior as favorite daughter and debutant, more of Anne's personality and place in her family would have been apparent. Certainly Amanda Hale's neurotic presentation of Mary Elliot Musgrove did a great deal to further the audience's understanding of Anne and her situtation.
A good story, but only a fair film because not everything that could have been done with the characters was.
Description of Persuasion 2007
Jane Austenā??s romantic masterpiece comes to DVD in a thrilling new production from the BBC and Masterpiece Theatre. Anne Elliot fell deeply in love with the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth at the age of nineteen. But with neither fortune nor rank to recommend him, Anne was persuaded to break off her engagement. Eight years later, Anne has lived to regret her decision. She never stopped loving Wentworth, and when he returns from sea with a fortune and rank, she can only watch as every eligible young woman in the district falls at his feet.Bestsellers in DVD
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