Word: wentworth
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...film version of Persuasion, directed by Roger Michell, seizes on this desperation, making it the film's emotional keynote. When Anne (Amanda Root) first appears, she seems almost panicked, with her pale face, thin-lipped grimace and wide, staring eyes. She is still stunned over the rupture with Wentworth, and when he is first referred to in her presence she trembles, almost weeping. This sense of barely contained grief haunts her throughout the film...
...tenant of Kellynch, however, turns out to be Admiral Croft, the brother-in-law of Captain Wentworth, meaning that Wentworth and Anne will inevitably be thrust together. When Wentworth arrives, it seems as if he will soon be engaged to Louisa Musgrove, a high-spirited but silly girl who is Anne's opposite. Indeed, Anne's thoughtless sister Mary (Sophie Thompson) reports that Wentworth had said that "he would hardly have recognized her." It seems that she is condemned to watch in silence as the man she still loves is lost to her forever...
...with sheer pleasure, then, that we watch as events take an unexpected turn, separating Wentworth from Louisa and bringing him, through a thicket of obstacles, back to Anne. "Persuasion" is certainly a tale of romance, in which the heroine ends up happy against all odds. But what makes it distinctively a Jane Austen story is the moral dimension of the romance; the real agony of Anne's plight is not just her lack of a husband, but her total isolation among people who neither understand nor value her character and virtue...
...seems to be a mere victim of their mistreatment. And that mistreatment is portrayed so luridly-Nicholls' Elizabeth, especially, is a snickering ghoul-that Walter and Elizabeth Elliot seem closer to the wicked step-family of Cinderella than the conceited fools of Austen's novel. Likewise, Ciaran Hinds' Wentworth, while he cuts a fine figure in his naval uniform, gives little sense of that personal merit which ostensibly attracts Anne...
...Persuasion" encounters the inevitable fate of a movie based on an Austen novel: It is louder, more simplistic and garish than the original. When Anne and Wentworth kiss on the street in Bath, the whole social code which underlies Austen's world is simply tossed aside in the name of a satisfying climax. But although the film's tone is not perfect, it is close. And the acting, cinematography, even music, are as good as could be hoped for. Go see "Persuasion," but don't forget to stop at the bookstore on the way home...