It’s far past time for an adaptation of Persuasion. Of all the works in the Austen canon, her final work makes the most sense to adapt due to its enduring relatability.
In the age of Bridgerton, and “making regency sexy again” the taste for old-yet-modern period dramas has increased. As usual, the age old question for ardent literature loyalists is: How modern is “too” modern, and and does too much modernization defeat the purpose? (I should add here that one of the debates about modernity and faithfulness I’m not interested in entertaining is gripes about the cast’s racial diversity. While I recognize that such castings are not historically accurate, I don’t identify with the desire to preserve period dramas as an all-white space masked as fidelity.)
Netflix forayed into the heated debate around “modern twists” last year with its adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (with mixed results). Now the streaming platform is back again with a much-anticipated rendering of Persuasion that has already elicited strong opinions from enthusiasts.
Here are five first observations about the newly released trailer for Netflix’s Persuasion:
Persuasion’s first full length trailer
1. Like other more recent Austen adaptations (Emma 2020, Love & Friendship 2016), Persuasion leans into comedy.
And I like that. Many Austen adaptations, including the last two goes at Persuasion in ‘95 and ‘07, forget that the author was a master of comedic irony. Netflix’s upcoming adaptation will attempt to remedy this. Whereas earlier Persuasion adaptations rendered Anne Elliot’s family purely insufferable, this interpretation seems to revive them as the comic characters they are meant to be. This bodes well for adaptation’s overall engagingness. For once we may actually be able to enjoy the characters and events around Anne and Wentworth instead of just waiting to fast forward to their longing glances at each other. Speaking of longing glances…
2. This adaptation has more talking and less longing.
Part of the reason Persuasion and its adaptations aren’t more popular (from the average viewer’s perspective) is that there isn’t much verbal communication between its love interests. Persuasion is the definition of slow burn; it runs on quiet glances and anticipation. But more than being “slow burn,” Persuasion is private and internal. Though written in third-person, it is an intimate examination of Anne’s interior struggle with regret, uncertainty, and self-(re)discovery. Based on the trailer, the newest adaptation externalizes and vocalizes more of the story through (1) a shift to first-person narration/fourth-wall breaking, and (2) increased dialogue between Anne and Wentworth. Not only do the characters process the pain of their former relationship together aloud; they have a friendship. In the trailer, Anne explicitly refers to them as “friends” and “exes,” whereas the book describes them “strangers” and “worse than strangers.” This is sure to be a controversial decision by the filmmakers. Purists have already noted with frustration how anachronistic a term “ex” is, but potentially more disconcerting is the way externalization might affect fidelity to the characters and the tension between them.
3. That being said, Cosmo Jarvis provides more than enough longing stares.
I’m not familiar with Jarvis and was unsure about his casting as Wentworth when it was first announced. The trailer and teasers give me reason to be optimistic about his performance, though. He has sad and expressive eyes that suit him to the role. The question, for me, is whether he will be able to strike the balance between the script’s expressiveness and Wentworth’s Austenian restraint. This Wentworth may have more lines to work with, but one of Wentworth’s key qualities in the novel is his ability to speak volumes without speaking. His reserve has a deeper meaning.
The trailer gives us a glimpse at an exchange between Anne and Wentworth that isn’t in the book. Presumably talking about the demise of their relationship, Anne says, “I don’t want you to be angry.” Wentworth responds, “What would you want me to be?” The question isn’t spoken angrily, but rather with genuine confusion. If Jarvis does the role well, that dialogue and his performance could potentially provide new and rewarding insight into the character. What if Wentworth’s restraint—both in the book and, hopefully, in the film—isn’t only due to resentment? What if he guards himself because he does not know what to “be” with Anne given their history? Friendly? Aloof? Emotional? How should he act? In addition to being the norm of the time, Wentworth’s reserve is motivated by a deep disorientation. Can Jarvis highlight this?
4. This Anne Elliot has a personality, but is it the right one?
My biggest gripe with preceding Persuasion adaptations is that Anne is boring in all of them. (Yes, I said it.) I know that the point of Anne’s character is to model quiet strength, but previous actresses over-attended to the “quiet” part of that phrase and under-attended to the “strength.” Sally Hawkins’ Anne (‘07) never appeared to be anything but timid and out of breath. Amanda Root was better, but still lacking in personality. In my opinion, both adaptations mistook being reserved, responsible, and persuadable with being silent and shrinking. It’s easy to make this mistake since, after all, everyone in the book does the same. They assume that Anne lacks will even though she has a deep well of intelligence, perceptiveness, and strength. As one Youtube comment noted, Anne embodies the saying that “still waters run deep.”
Netflix’s rendering of Anne certainly has a personality, but Dakota Johnson may have the opposite problem. Though she narrates that her family persuaded her to give Wentworth up, it’s hard to believe that Johnson’s Anne is persuadable. Her Anne appears to be confident, humorous, and flirtatious—qualities that Austen’s Anne either lacked or at the very least displayed in different ways. Johnson’s Anne may be the victim of a rewrite that seeks to restore Anne’s personality and agency at the expense of fidelity. In doing so, the film could fall prey to the assumption that Austen’s Anne lacked agency as she was written.
5. Netflix’s Persuasion may lack fidelity in the ways that matter.
I’m willing to give adaptations a long rope and the benefit of the doubt. After all, adaptation is interpretation. It’s exegesis and eisegesis. I’m happy to stomach changes, additions, and departures as long as they are in service to the essence of the text and its characters. The best creative and controversial adaptation decisions may make me look at the text differently, but they are still firmly based in the text. The Persuasion trailer strongly hints that the adaptation leaves the text completely behind in critical areas. If Austen poignantly grieves that Anne and Wentworth are strangers, why attempt to make them friends? What’s the point of using the term “exes” other than being modern for modernity’s sake? Why is Anne’s hair down for half the trailer and what’s going on with these costumes? How are any of these alterations serving the story and characters Austen wrote?
Modern adaptations can breathe new life into books without rewriting them. Whether Netflix will achieve that balance with Persuasion is doubtful.
You can find shorter teasers for Persuasion here. The movie will be available July 15.