Persuasion

A film set in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Anne is twenty-seven. She is unmarried, nobody at home consults her, and her family treats her as invisible. There was an engagement eight years ago. Frederick Wentworth was a naval officer with no money and her family did not think the match suitable. Anne gave it up. A trusted family friend persuaded her and the engagement was broken. Now the situation has reversed. Her father is in debt; they have to let the estate. The tenant turns out to be an admiral. And the admiral's brother-in-law is Wentworth. He has made money in the war. He is a captain now, has taken prize money, and wants to marry. From there the film is a story of coming closer. A dinner, a walk, a carriage journey, a seashore and a letter. Wentworth does not look at Anne. He pays attention to the young women around him while she sits quietly in the room. What the narrative is interested in is not love but having been persuaded: years ago Anne gave her decision to someone else, and the novel's title says exactly that. Anne does not speak. Almost the whole film is read from her face and Amanda Root carries the part nearly without words. The design is dirty. This adaptation does not show the period as bright and ornamented; the faces are without make-up, the houses cold, the candles few and the clothes worn. The Bath section settles at the centre. The city is built as an arena of display and Anne is at her loneliest there. The letter decides the close. Wentworth writes, Anne reads, and the narrative answers all its silence there. The production was made for the BBC and shown in cinemas abroad. Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Fleetwood and Corin Redgrave are in the cast. Roger Michell directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes Jane Austen adaptations and plain period design. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the narrative is very slow and most of the feeling goes unspoken.