Persuasion (2000, DVD)

The 1990s were the beginning of something of an Austen renaissance on screen. It seemed like everyone wanted to try their hand at adapting Jane Austen's novels for television and film. The fascinating marriage between her early 19th century novels and the cinema of our own time has continued to the present day. But in my mind, the high water mark for Austen film adaptations came in 1995.

That was the year that we got not one, but three distinctly different and wonderful screen versions of Austen novels: the BBC/A&E Pride and Prejudice mini-series, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle; the Ang Lee directed and Emma Thompson written feature film Sense and Sensibility; and this, the BBC produced 107 minute version of Persuasion, directed by Roger Michell and starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds.

Even an ardent Austen fan might be forgiven for momentarily overlooking this final gem, as it's a much quieter, less "sparkling" film in many respects. That's partly due to its source material, Austen's last completed novel which was published posthumously in 1818.

Rather than dealing with the tempestuous and rocky road of first courtship, a road Austen traveled well, Persuasion provides a deeper look into the emotions and cadences of love lost and regained. That's not to say it's a complete departure from Austen's earlier work: her themes and characters from book to book have far more in common than not. But with its emphasis on a couple that has found one another, lost one another, and perhaps found one another again (the "perhaps" is what drives the story), Persuasion seems to strike a different chord. It's a chord I'm discovering I like listening to repeatedly. Each time I re-read the novel, I find more in it. And now that I've watched this film for a second time, I can honestly say that I love this quiet adaptation.

That's due in large part to the performances of the lead actors. Amanda Root plays Anne Elliot, a young woman "past her prime" and living with regrets. Root captures the part better than I ever imagined anyone could. She's pretty in a plain way, with large, earnest eyes that seem to beseech others (especially Wentworth) to hear her thoughts, even when she can't quite find her voice. Although unassuming, Anne's serenity and strength of purpose should shine through, and they do in this film. She has regrets but is not eaten up by bitterness, choosing to step outside of her own unhappiness to help others. Root manages to convey the character well, especially in the scenes with her hypochondriac sister Mary (the wonderful Sophie Thompson in another great turn) whom she handles with grace and firmness and even a touch of humor, but never belittles.

Bear in mind that Anne is not middle aged by today's standards. "Past her prime," in Austen's day, meant an unmarried lady in her mid to late twenties. Anne is around 26 or 27, the same age as Charlotte Lucas, the secondary character in Pride and Prejudice who settles for a practical marriage to a pretentious and boring man rather than live out her days an old maid. Anne's situation is not quite as fraught with uncertainties as Charlotte's, but their situations aren't totally dissimilar. The main difference is that Anne, unlike Charlotte (at least as far as we know) has actually experienced the joys of real love.

At the tender age of 19, Anne fell deeply in love with a naval officer named Wentworth, played brilliantly in this film by Ciaran Hinds. Having lost her own mother a few years before, she is guided by the well-intentioned but faulty advice of her late mother's closest friend, Lady Russell. Persuaded that she's too young to marry someone with so little social consequence and connections, Anne gives up Wentworth...only to discover that she can never really forget him or love anyone else. Wentworth, brokenhearted, heads to sea. He becomes a wealthy hero in the Napoleonic wars, but never marries. When Persuasion opens, he has just come back into the neighborhood where Anne happens to be staying. He is determined to avoid her and to fall for someone else.

Such is the interesting set-up one finds. What makes the narrative a visual challenge is that so little, on the outside, seems to happen, while so very much happens in our characters' inner lives...their hopes, fears and regrets. The actors must play reserved characters (both reserved in temperament, and made more so by their sudden proximity) who show their reassessment of one another and their reassessment of their own feelings by the slightest looks, gestures and touches. It's a story of emotional reawakening. While Root's earnest performance grounds the whole movie, Hinds must show huge variations of emotion within a very small framework of plot. His indifference at the beginning must give way, in tiny increments, until his heart is revealed...a heart still beating for Anne, even though he doesn't know it himself until it's almost too late.

Austen herself used to declare that she worked her stories on a two-inch piece of ivory. It's fascinating to see the filmmakers take such a seemingly small story and help unfold its layers of emotional depth. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the way the camera is used to convey emotion and to give the viewer clues to what the actors are feeling. There are close-ups on eyes and hands (especially hands...watch for those moments!) and quick fluid pans around a drawing room full of people. There are also camera movements I can't quite describe that evoke a sense of dizziness and distance, especially in the first scene when Anne sees her beloved Captain Wentworth for the first time in years.

The autumnal colors of much of the film also lend it a different, almost sober tone. This is a love story, as all of Austen's stories were, but one of her most poignant. I also think it's one of her most deeply romantic. Root and Hinds (whom I find handsome in an unconventionally grave, serious way) have beautiful chemistry.

If you're a fan of the novel, I think you will find this a compelling adaptation, faithful to the spirit of the story and creative in the way it brings that story to life. If you've not yet seen any Austen film adaptations, I highly recommend this one and the other wonderful Austen films made in the same year.

~befus, 2007

Note: please ignore the picture above, mistakenly associated with this film. Those are not the actors discussed here, nor is there a scene in any way like it in the movie. If you're interested in seeing what the film really looks like, try the IMDB entry, which has some good stills.

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One final note for fellow Austen enthusiasts! Even where the film script seems to take the most leeway with the novel, there's a level of fidelity to Austen's spirit that I find breathtaking. In one late scene, Wentworth is bid to speak to Anne on behalf of her father's tenant. It's an awkward and embarrassing moment because the tenant wishes him to convey to Anne his readiness to quit the house if she is ready to move back in, believing (as many do in one of Austen's familiar twists on trusting to false impressions) that Anne is about to marry her wealthy cousin. By this point in the plot, the last thing in the world Wentworth wants to discuss with Anne is the probability that she might marry someone else, and she's scandalized to find that he thinks it. The scene plays out in a stammering agony for both of them and breaks off abruptly due to an ill-timed interruption. I've found this scene fascinating as it's nowhere in the novel, but helps increase the romantic tension in a believable way.

It turns out that the scene closely resembles some pages from Austen's rough draft. I read a transcript of the draft (now in a British museum) on a website not long ago, and recognized it immediately as the basis for this scene in the film. Austen originally thought this might be the ultimate scene and then excised it because she thought it fell flat. Smart woman! But while it didn't work as the ultimate scene, it worked very well as a penultimate one. And just proved again how much love for and knowledge of Austen's work went into the the making of this excellent movie.

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