‘Persuasion’ Review: Dakota Johnson Makes an Odd Fit for a ‘Fleabag’-Styled Jane Austen Adaptation
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film CriticJane Austen completed the manuscript for “Persuasion” in 1816, the year before her death. But even then, more than 200 years ago, she anticipated the conversation Hollywood is having today, putting these words into Captain Harville’s mouth: “I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman’s inconstancy.
Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman’s fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.”Anne Elliot — bright, heartbroken and, at the ripe old age of 28, facing the risk of lifelong spinsterhood — naturally agrees, not to Harville’s point that it is woman’s nature (more than man’s) to forget those they’ve loved before, but to the fact that “the pen has been in their hands,” and thus, the history of literature betrays a gender bias.
Two centuries later, the world is still struggling to even that balance, and no studio seems more committed than Netflix to giving women a chance to control their narrative.
While original works are welcome, Austen makes an obvious choice for female directors to adapt (certainly more than “Dangerous Liaisons,” which gets a “Clueless”-y contemporary makeover from the streamer this week as well).
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