Persuasion (2022 film)

Persuasion is a 2022 American historical romantic film based on Jane Austen's 1817 novel of the same name. It was directed by Carrie Cracknell from a screenplay by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow. The film stars Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Richard E. Grant, and Henry Golding.

Persuasion was released to theaters in the United States on July 8, 2022, a week before its streaming release on July 15, 2022, by Netflix.

Plot
The story begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to Frederick Wentworth, then a young and undistinguished naval officer. He was considered clever, confident and ambitious, but his low social status and lack of wealth made Anne's friends and family view him as an unsuitable partner. Furthermore, Lady Russell, a distant relative whom Anne considers to be a second mother to her after her own died, also saw the relationship as imprudent for one so young, so persuaded Anne to break off the engagement.

Sir Walter Elliot, his debts mounting, decides to lease Kellynch Hall, the family estate, to Admiral Croft despite Sir Walter’s objection to having a naval man in his house. Sir Walter and Anne’s sister Elizabeth, along with the widowed Ms Penelope Clay, go to Bath while Anne is instructed to care for her sister Mary who had taken ill.

Admiral Croft and his wife arrive, where it is learned that Admiral Croft’s wife is Wentworth’s sister, and he is also expected to be in the area. While visiting Mary, the Admiral, his wife and Captain Wentworth are expected for dinner; Mary miraculously recovers from her illness for the dinner and Anne volunteers to miss the dinner to sit with Mary’s injured son. Unknowing of their previous attachment, Mary’s sister-in-law Louisa encourages Anne to pursue Captain Wentworth but ends up pursuing him herself.

The group, including Mary’s family, Anne, Louisa and Wentworth travel to Lyme to enjoy a holiday by the sea and meet some of Captain Wentworth’s naval friends, including Captains Berwick and Harville. Louisa’s infatuation with Wentworth is obvious, and Anne tries to hide her feelings.

Anne and Wentworth agree to be friends, and the group encounters a mysterious gentleman who seems to be interested in Anne. They discover his identity after he has departed to Bath; the gentleman is William Elliot, cousin to the family who stands to inherit everything.

Louisa, in a misguided attempt at flirtation, has Captain Wentworth catch her as she jumps down the last stairs of a staircase. She tries to repeat the gesture, despite Wentworth’s objections, and is seriously injured. Captain Berwick fetches a doctor and Mary resolves to stay with her while Anne goes to Bath.

In Bath, Anne is reacquainted with William Elliot, who appears to pursue her. He also states that his intention in Bath is to ensure Anne’s father does not marry Ms Penelope Clay, thereby creating an heir which would displace him. Anne learns that Louisa is engaged to a sailor and assumes this to be Wentworth given their previous attachment.

Wentworth arrives to Bath and is piqued by William Elliot’s apparent pursuit of Anne, especially as he leads him to believe he and Anne are engaged. William Elliot does in fact propose, although Anne has not given an answer. Anne’s sister Mary and family also soon arrive to Bath.

Captain Wentworth has been made an offer of a ship and is deciding whether to take it, then overhears Anne and Harville discussing the relative faithfulness of men and women in love. Deeply moved by what Anne says about women not giving up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost, Wentworth writes her a note declaring his feelings for her and departs.

Anne runs after Wentworth, along the way seeing William Elliot embracing Mrs Penelope Clay. Anne and Captain Wentworth embrace. The wedding of William Elliot and Penelope Clay is shown, while Anne is shown how to use a sextant while the happy look out over the ocean as they talk of their impending naval voyage.

Production
In April 2021, it was announced Dakota Johnson had joined the cast of the film, with Carrie Cracknell directing from a screenplay by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen, with Netflix set to distribute. In May 2021, Henry Golding, Cosmo Jarvis, Suki Waterhouse, Richard E. Grant, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ben Bailey Smith, Izuka Hoyle, Mia McKenna-Bruce, and Nia Towle joined the cast of the film. In June 2021, Edward Bluemel, Lydia Rose Bewley, and Yolanda Kettle joined the cast of the film.

Principal photography began in May 2021.

Reception
On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews.

Variety Peter Debruge found Carrie Cracknell to have "gone and done a strange thing with the book", by trying to "modernize it, borrowing heavily from Fleabag with its fourth-wall-breaking gimmicks", while "casting a free-spirited, fully liberated American star, Dakota Johnson, as Anne — all of which strips the novel of its core tension." Christy Lemire from the Roger Ebert website found Dakota Johnson offering in the film "a taste of her under-appreciated comic timing", though she claims "it's impossible to care about whether Anne ends up with Frederick Wentworth because, as played by Cosmo Jarvis, he is so stiff and uncharismatic." The Guardian's Stuart Heritage wrote that the "attempt to modernize the classic novel has led to a disaster of anachronistic dialogue and annoyingly wry glances at the camera," while Vox critic Constance Grady found the film an "absolute disaster." The Spectator went so far as to proclaim in its review that "everyone involved should be in prison."

Vanity Fair cited Persuasion as a work that fails to utilize breaking the fourth wall successfully, writing that it "risk[s] structural damage" to itself due to breaking the fourth wall in an unnecessary and "narratively jarring" way.