I have a confession to make…
Although I love Jane Austen, I never read Persuasion. I know. Crazy. But it turns out I am lucky because if I had read Persuasion, then perhaps I would be one of those writers blasting the new Persuasion adaption from here to tomorrow.
Even as someone who has not read the book, I can tell you that it is not a faithful adaptation. How can it be? Even the trailer showed an extremely modern take on a classic novel.
I can’t speak to how much the movie changed the beloved Anne or totally ruined the melancholy air that pervades the novel, apparently.
However, everyone needs to chill.
The critics blasted Persuasion. Vox called it “an absolute disaster,” and Pajiba called it” Awful and everything that is wrong with Netflix.”
The crowning criticism was from The Spectator who titled their Review “Everyone Involved Should Be In Prison.”
These strong sentiments were in my mind when I sat down to watch my favorite genre of movie, Regency romances. I loved Bridgerton. Sanditon was great. Pride and Prejudice is amazing.
Persuasion was….bad.
But that’s all it was. It wasn’t a good movie. It was nothing special. There was no magic about it. The male leads were boring and uninspiring. There was absolutely no chemistry. Wentworth was so boring as to be irritating. But it wasn’t that bad!
It was a perfectly good mindless viewing of a rom-com. It is not better or worse than any other Reese Witherspoon or Katherine Heigel movie that we loved as teens. It was a perfectly mediocre film and certainly not worthy of all the vitriol.
Everyone needs to chill… Persuasion was not that bad.
You have no plans for the weekend, but you do have a nice comfy couch and a fridge full of food and snacks, so what’s next? Binge-watching some amazing shows on Netflix, of course! What should you watch, though? No worries, we’ve got you covered with seventeen Netflix original shows to binge-watch this weekend.
