“You may perhaps like the heroine, as she is almost too good for me”.
Jane Austen, 23 March 1817, Letters of Jane Austen
Was Sally Hawkins performance as Anne Elliot too good? I think not so.
I do not know what to think of her interpretation of our tragic heroine in the PBS presentation of Persuasion on Masterpiece Classic last night. I am sitting on the fence at the moment. Trying to give her every benefit of a doubt. Waiting for Lady Russell to saunter over from Kellynch Lodge and push, poke, prod, persuade me into rejecting her performance as Jane Austen’s most gentle and endearing heroine. But I’m uncertain, and I can not speak my mind! Nor could Anne.
Have I caught the Anne Elliot disease? Or is it Sally Hawkins interpretation of her? Dunno! I’m on brain drain from trying to figure her out. – And my sign language is rusty.
In her defence, Jane Austen did create a very gentle complex creature; – - part mother Teresa, part Cinderella, all heart. The role is packed full of subtle nuance and underlying tension. A challenge for any actress worth her weight in salt. Jane did forewarn us. In a letter to her niece Fanny Knight in 1817, she informs her that Anne ”is almost too good for me”, jokingly placing her estimation of her good character above her own talent. High praise.
So what has Sally Hawkins done to our Anne? Hmm? Well don’t blame Jane!
Ok, clarity descends. It’s the script. She had nothing to work with. Writer Simon Burke took away most of her dialogue, and director Adrian Shergold turned her into a silent screen star. See Anne’s eyes roll, they can only tell the story. See Anne’s mouth, it can only frown and gape. See Anne run through Bath, because she is mute and can not call a cab. Mary Pickford must be spinning in her grave.
I really wanted to like this one. I did! It does have a few charms to recommend. Rupert Penry-Jones is easy to look at and a commanding presence on screen. He also got short shrift with dialogue. Shame, because his voice is glorious. The two young Musgrove sisters are a delight against an otherwise somber landscape. Amanda Hale as the snorting Mary Musgrove stole her scenes.
I shall view it again in the hope that it will grow on me and learn to appreciate it. At least I will benefit from Anthony Head’s hilarious performance as foppish Sir Walter Elliot. He is the real star of this version of Persuasion. Shall we rename it Arrogance in his honor and call it a day?
In addition, add the insult of close-ups to Sally’s long face and weak chin, which her face cannot take. She is ordinarily pretty, not extraordinary, and the camera was not kind to her half the time.
Her acting is superb. What she did with so little material is breathtaking, but then the director nearly dismantled her lovely interpretation with those awful close up shots.
I agree with your assessment in everything except Mary Musgrove, whose shrillness and snorting got on my nerves.
I think Sally Hawkins is a very good actress but she was NOT Anne Elliot. We barbarians who write fan fiction ;-) study these characters closely and I know Anne Elliot very, very well. Maybe too well.
I feel sorry for the screenwriter, who didn’t do a bad job with exposition as far as The Year Six and setting up the love triangle with Mr. Elliot–I guess actually a square with Louisa Musgrove, really–and then all of a sudden seemed to realize he had only 10 minutes left to get in everything after Captain Wentworth arrives in Bath. “I know! I’ll have Anne run around getting exposition from random characters like a Greek tragedy!” It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. :-)
I had enjoyed it last night despite the fact that I had to switch back and forth to watch the Golden Globe results. I was impressed by all the Bath mentions and seeing some actual Bath scenery and sites. I’ll definitely watch it again.
I was very disappointed in this adaptation.
I knew it was going off the rails when Anne’s crucial conversation with Captain Harville at Bath came early on (in Lyme and with Captain Benwick!).
The last half hour was actually upsetting to me. Anne would never run through Bath. Mrs. Smith would not be tearing about the place, either. The letter, perhaps the most lovely moment in the novel, was almost entirely lost under the huffing and puffing proffered by Sally Hawkins. It was painful to watch Anne await her kiss, and wait, and wait – was that supposed to drive home the “romance” of the moment? And how, one wonders, could Captain Wentworth obtain Kellynch Hall? And, anyway, why the need to ADD a scene not written by Austen when so much of the lovely book was omitted?
As for the casting, I thought Amanda Hale was terrible as Mary Musgrove, the woman playing Elizabeth far too old and the actress playing Mrs. Clay far too pretty.
There was some silliness, too. A servant standing around with an inkwell just in the off-chance her mistress might come by? Louisa’s “duh” reply to Captain Wentworth’s query about the timing Charles’ proposal to Anne (“…before he married Mary”).
Pretty sets, locations and costumes, though. (Well, one must find something positive to say!)
Any Jane Austen dramatization is better than anything else that might be shown on TV, but otherwise I was disappointed.
This will never replace the Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds version which I adore – though Wentworth was much nicer to look at.
The story was chopped up for convenience, there was too little character development, and Anne was altogether too shrinking and trembling-lipped for me. She may be clever enough to reset a collarbone, but her other charms, and their staying power for Captain Wentworth, were far from obvious. The scenes of her dashing around Bath robbed her of dignity. It was badly done.
Hello Deborah Jane, and thanks for your insightful observations and opinions. I think that you accurately described many of its faults and shortcomings. Really sad considerings all the the screenwriter and director had to start with. If they can not improve upon the dialogue and plot, then why change it? I was also disturbed by the ‘mis-casting’ of many of the characters. Sally Hawkins may be an up-and-coming British actress, but this production will certainly not advance her acclaim. You point out “some silliness”, well, you were very kind in your omissions!
Cheers, Laurel Ann
Hello cottagerswife, Thank you for joing in today. I whole heartly agree with you! The 1995 Root/Hinds version of Persuasion still reigns supreme with me also! One of the best Jane Austen adaptations ever. This version not only robbed Anne of her dignity, but many others, including Jane Austen. Badly done, ITV, badly done!
We shall see how Northanger Abbey fares next week.
Cheers, Laurel Ann
Is anyone else nervous about the upcoming adaptations? I hope they are not all done in this manner.
I also agree with Deborah Jane’s review. To make matters worse, PBS left out two scenes and cut at least two scenes short from the original ITV movie (you can watch it on youtube). I agree with Penry-Jones’ voice and I like his slower, more deliberate delivery of lines in comparison to Ciaran Hinds’ more quick delivery. As to the running around and hurried up story lines – why did they do it? Why didn’t they just add another half hour to the story and follow the book more closely? I did like the movie because I love seeing my favorite books acted out but it so easily could have been better.
I had been very reluctant to watch Persuasion last night knowing that they could not possibly match the Root/Hinds version of Persuasion, but I did not imagine that it would such a poor production. After all it was Masterpiece Theater. The need to cut some scenes is understandable, but having the wrong people say the wrong lines in the wrong place is a terrible thing to do to a truly well written story. I found Anne to be much too weak of a character, and Captain Wentworth had nothing to commend himself besides his looks. The Musgrove sisters were well done. I will probably watch the rest of the upcoming Austen productions, but I’m not expecting much from them.
I disliked this version intensely but am a fan of the books so most screen versions leave something to be desired for me. I was terribly disappointed in the writing, pace, connectivity and screenplay. Unfortunately, this is a story that requires much more time to be truly well done, and while the Root/Hinds version is vastly superior to this one, even it digressed from the story a great deal particularly as regards Mrs. Smith.
The sets were wonderful and the location scenes were excellent. Lady Russell deserved much more attention, in this version she simply disappeared which was a great waste of talent considering the actress chosen for the role. She was a mere “cipher” to put it in Jane-an terms. The running around of Anne at the end was the worst of all. It would have been unthinkable in that society. I liked the Musgrove sisters, and I think that Mrs. Clay was closer to being correct for the part than the one in the Root/Hinds version. Mrs. Clay was “altogether well-looking” as described by Austen. I also liked most of the casting, although I tend to agree that the main character wasn’t suited for the role of Anne. I will continue watching the series, but not with the enthusiasm and anticipation that I had before now. Fortunately, the upcoming version of Pride and Prejudice is my favorite production of all the Jane Austen movies I’ve seen. That will be a saving grace for the series unless it is cut-up to fit the time slots.
I agree with virtually all of the comments panning this production. How sad that the writer and director thought they could improve on what Jane Austen actually wrote. As a teacher, what saddens me even more is that students will watch this film version and think that they know the story of Persuasion, when they don’t. The scene where Frederick writes the letter in Anne’s presence as she converses with Captain Harville and Anne later reads it is the most thrilling and the most significant in the book, and it’s missing from this story! How dense could the writer be? I will forbid my students to watch it and will quiz them in ways that catch them out if they do. Just kidding, but I will warn them sternly that they are missing something great if they substitute this lame version of the film for the joyous experience of reading the book or watching the much superior Root/Hinds version.
I watched Persuasion for the second time yesterday to give it a chance, and Sally Hawkins is truly woeful. The romantic denouement where Anne kisses Wentworth had me cringing: Hawkins gaping and gasping; Penry-Jones seemingly reluctant to lock lips. Is he actually backing away? Absolute lack of charisma and chemistry from the leads, and nothing in Hawkin’s drippy, permanently lost-for-words and gasping Anne to convince me that Captain Wentworth had ever seen any feisty qualities in her. Grim.
Deborah Jane is right on with her comments. The miscasting was brutal. People who were supposed to be pretty were ugly and vice-versa. Henrrietta and Louisa were cute, according to the book, yet they were odd looking in the movie.
In my opinion, the acting was good, particularly from the two main characters. Casting and script sucked. My two least favourite scenes: Ann running around Bath and and her kissing a reluctant lover. What on earth was that?
i don’t know about all of you i thought that this was great and to be honest i like the part when they have that kiss.because they waited so long for that that it doesn’t matter to wait a little more.as we say in my country better late than never.also i loved the performance of sally hawkins because she maybe seems shy but not impassioned
Wow! You guys are brutal!
I actually liked this movie. I think it pretty much got across the gist of the story, and of course that is what it should do in the allotted amount of time it is given. However, you can’t please everyone, and yes, it could’ve been longer but I’m certainly glad they did the film and have watched it several times.
What I did not like was the sprint through Bath or the way the movie suddenly started to sprint to the finish line at the same time. I also didn’t like Anne’s outfit in that running scene (a minor detail). I was sorry that they changed the way the letter was written and the kiss would’ve worked better if we could perhaps have seen it from a different perspective/angles etc. Some of the camera work irritated me. What may have seemed to be awkwardness or reluctance, I think was more likely supposed to have been hesitancy. A couple truly of this era would have displayed just that, not to mention that a scene like this would have never played out on the street in Regency England. However, that’s what we in these modern times want to see and movie makers do try to deliver. There has to be a kiss right? It was difficult to see that stuff because the camera man had some kind of thing going on with Anne’s face only. If we could have seen the scene backed up slightly at least part of the time, and perhaps a bit more of Wentworth’s expression leading up to the kiss, it would’ve made more sense to us. It was hard to figure out what was really going on from his perspective, and I think we missed a lot of the nuance there. Probably a waste of some pretty good acting actually.
All in all though, this movie was nicely done, the leading actors were really very good and I actually thought that Sally Hawkins made a very believable Anne and is certainly a very talented actress. She was pretty, but not overly so. In the novel Anne Elliot is known to have a pretty face with nice even features, however she has lost much of her glow due to her suffering, weight loss and so on. This she slowly regains as the story progresses and I would’ve enjoyed seeing that subtle change occur a little more in the movie. The softening perhaps of her hair style (which was very severe) and clothing etc.
Rupert Penry Jones was an awesome Captain Wentworth, very dashing and handsome. He is an actor who can certainly get his message across. I was never in doubt of what he was thinking or feeling for the entire movie and these I thought were depicted very accurately. His resentment towards her, the gradual softening, understanding and realization of her superior qualities, and finally, the awakening to the fact that he loves her still.
The last scene was a bit strange, but perhaps we can assume that Captain Wentworth simply took over the lease of Kelynch Hall from his brother in law, the Admiral Croft. :)
Johanna, thanks for stopping by. This adaptation of Persuasions does have its merits, namely Rupert Penry Jones. I agree about the wonky camera work. I have not viewed this movie for over a year, and the dust may have settled, and I may think differently. This review reflects my initial reaction. I will let you know it my opinion changes. Thanks, Laurel Ann