Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

cnycitylady In this adaptation of Persuasion you get the book almost entirely verbatim. The scenery is lush and alive but at the same time dull. It represents wonderfully how our heroine Anne sees life both before and after her Captain has come home, and both before and after he wins her heart a second time.You really see how embarrassed she is upon his return, you see how much she still loves him but how she will not be the one to stand in his way of true happiness. The characters all come to life and the actors bring their own take on all of them. Any lover of Jane Austen will appreciate how well this movie was made. This is one of the best book to movie translations ever seen on screen. 9/10

Pandelis I am marking this only with a 6, mainly because of 2 things: a) The plainness of the leading actress's appearance that I know it was the director's decision. You are going to tell me that the leading man was not exactly Prince Charming... Correct! However, it was very bothering watching for two hours a supposed 26 year old young woman appearing and behaving like she is 46!!! OK, at the start of the film she was on the edge of becoming a spinster... However, near the end of the film she was more appreciated and confident and she also had two suitors literary running after her... Not even THEN could the director let the poor actress put on some make up, wear something else than those old curtains and do something with that bloody hair of hers?b) Why the director wanted every character that he wanted us to dislike TALK WITH THEIR MOUTHS FULL? Anne's sister Elizabeth, her father, Ms Pain, Mary, Louisa, ALL of them are at some stage doing that. However, is was not them that I wanted to slap, but the director - that believed that having people behaving like this he would have a worthy Jane Austen novel adaptation... What's next man? Directing a Shakespeare play adaptation, where the villains defecate in frond of us? Having said all that, the performances and the overall production were OK. The story could had been told with more lively pace (=less boring), though... and Anne could had been portrayed less than a cold "Plain Jane" girl... The only time we see her laugh is when she visits that widow, and to be honest I am not very well convinced that her heart was in it :)If you ignore all these, it is actually a watchable film :))

marspeach The 1995 Persuasion movie is not only my favorite adaptation of that particular book, it's one of my top five Jane Austen adaptations. And one of my favorite period movies. And just one of my favorite movies! It's just that good. The cast is excellent. I love the look and feel of realism it has too, similar to the 2005 Pride and Prejudice and Bright Star movies- realistic lighting, no makeup, messy hair, etc.Every adaptation has its flaws, and I guess I should just get them out of the way beforehand. This film contains one big historical error! The sailors often go about in their naval uniforms. While this looks really nice on screen, it is actually not accurate. As we know from Mansfield Park, these uniforms could only be seen while the officers were on duty. Probably most casual viewers wouldn't know this and it's cool to see them though. Another issue that doesn't really bother me in particular is the somewhat lacking exposition. I feel a little bit, that this movie was written with book fans in mind. If you weren't already familiar with the story, you might find it a bit confusing, especially in the beginning, what was going on between Anne and Wentworth. As I said, I had no problem following anything but since I had already read the book that doesn't really mean much.The casting is admittedly not perfect. Many of the actors are a bit too old, but nothing jarring like in 1971. Their brilliant performances more than made up for this- with one big exception- Phoebe Nicholls as Elizabeth Elliot was way over the top.Both the canceled and actual ending of the book were used. Some liked the addition, but I could take it or leave it, personally. Some of the other changes from the book may have worked as just a movie, but were lacking for me as an adaptation. Actually, I can say that about pretty much everything- there's nearly nothing in this movie that I don't like as just a movie.Before I say again how much I love this movie (I ended up rewatching it 3 times!), I remembered another scene that bothered me. Anne is taken to Upper Cross in a farmer's cart instead of Lady Russell's carriage. Really? That was stretching it quite a bit. I know Sir Walter doesn't pay much attention to her, but he would never allow his daughter to be seen traveling in that way! And Lady Russell would never have allowed it! She couldn't spare her carriage to go 3 miles away?? All in all, admittedly, this movie is not perfect. But it's still a darn good movie and it's the closest to perfection any of the adaptations of Persuasion have gotten so far.

Amy Adler Ann (Amanda Root) is the daughter of a spendthrift aristocrat (Corin Redgrave). When funds run low, the family is forced to vacate their stately mansion, rent the house to a retired Navy admiral, and move to smaller quarters in Bath. Ann's sister and father run off blithely, leaving Ann to tie up the loose ends of the arrangement. A kind and wealthy neighbor lady offers help but Ann, who once followed the lady's advice in rejecting a worthy man's proposal, confides to the neighbor that she should have accepted the offer. Nevertheless, Ann is impressed by the new tenants of their house and is startled to learn that the admiral's wife is the sister of the man Ann rejected long ago. As Ann trots off to visit another sister (Sophie Thompson) and her two young boys, she runs into her former admirer, Captain Wentworth. Only now, their situations are reversed, for the Captain has gained wealth and reputation while Ann's monetary funding is in decline. And, he ignores Ann for the most part and concentrates his attentions on the pretty younger sisters of Ann's brother in law. Ann, however, soon realizes she still loves him. What's a poor girl to do? This is a very fine movie, lovely to look at and featuring great performances, too. Thompson is an absolute stitch while the the other cast members, including Redgrave and Fiona Shaw, are first rate. Root is a conundrum, giving a very nice, quietly thoughtful performance but she does not have the dazzling appearance of most leading ladies. Perhaps, that is what Austen would have wanted. Costumes and scenery are of the put-your-eye-out variety. The main problem of the film is that it assumes too much, that the viewer is familiar with the book. Instead, the movie watcher is thrown into the Georgian world, without sufficient explanations of what is occurring or why. Most other adaptations of a well-loved book will, subtly, inform the viewer of the reasons behind the action, but not this one. Therefore, one may have to view the film a second time or sit down and read the wonderful book to feel the full impact of the movie's story. But, then again, nevermind. This is a lovely, classy film with an amazing set of characters and situations. Do not let anyone, even this reviewer, persuade you from getting this film tonight. It is totally worthy of much praise.