Synopsis
Living with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy, Anne Elliot is an unconforming woman with modern sensibilities. When Frederick Wentworth - the dashing one she once sent away - crashes back into her life, Anne must choose between putting the past behind her or listening to her heart when it comes to second chances.
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Cast
- Dakota JohnsonAnne Elliot
- Cosmo JarvisCaptain Frederick Wentworth
- Henry GoldingWilliam Elliot
- Richard E. GrantSir Walter Elliot
- Nikki Amuka-BirdLady Russell
- Ben Bailey SmithCharles Musgrove (as Ben Bailey-Smith)
- Mia McKenna-BruceMary Musgrove
- Izuka HoyleHenrietta Musgrove
- Nia TowleLouisa Musgrove
- Edward BluemelCaptain Harville
Recommendations
- 75
IndieWire
onally similar to Autumn de Wilde’s sprightly (and critically lauded) “Emma,” the first-time filmmaker’s cheeky and original debut seems to have been the victim of some messy marketing. The final product is, yes, fun and contemporary, but also suffused with the deep longing of its heroine, Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson, game as anyone to bridge seemingly disparate tones). - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Persuasion is sufficiently bold and consistent with its flagrant liberties to get away with them. It also helps that the novel’s long-suffering protagonist, Anne Elliot, has been given irrepressible spirit and an irreverent sense of irony in Dakota Johnson’s incandescent performance. - 58
Entertainment Weekly
This Persuasion chooses to wear its source material like a thin disposable skin, discarding many of the vital organs (brain, heart) and most ideas of subtlety as it goes. Austen may be immortal, but she's not inexhaustible; maybe it's time to tell another story and let her rest in peace. - 50
Slashfilm
The problem with "Persuasion" is it doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a bold, revisionist take on Austen with progressive colorblind casting and cutesy contemporary slang? Or is it a sentimental period romance that wants to get its audience's hearts fluttering as they sigh over the pining glances shared between Johnson's Anne and Cosmo Jarvis' (an endearingly awkward bright spot in the film) Wentworth? The result is a half-assed attempt at both, which only makes it all the more insulting. - 40
The Guardian
Jane Austen’s calm, subtle novel gets the Fleabag treatment in this smirking romcom; it has more wrong notes than an inebriated squadron of harpists, including everything but a last-minute rush in a barouche to Bath airport. - 40
Screen Rant
There are bound to be viewers less familiar with the source material who are enchanted by Persuasion. However, the modern touches are just too persistent to ignore, and they take away something that the movie urgently needed — genuine depth. - 38
Slant Magazine
The film proves again that the modern-day veneration of Jane Austen as the patron saint of the rom-com is also an act of simplification. - 30
Screen Daily
It’s not hard to figure out the recipe that resulted in Netflix’s Persuasion arriving half-baked from the streamer’s busy oven. Take one measure from Clueless. Cast an American actor as the lead (Dakota Johnson). Turn Jane Austen’s most mature heroine into a Bridget Jones, slugging red wine from the bottle and winking at the camera. Filter it all through a Regency Britain that comes straight from Bridgerton. Shake, too hard, and try not to cringe as the cake collapses.
