[ FILM ]
PERSUASION
He needed to work on those lines.
★★ OUT NOW (NETFLIX) CERT PG / 109 MINS
DIRECTOR Carrie Cracknell
CAST Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Henry Golding, Richard E. Grant, Nikki Amuka-Bird
PLOT Based on the 1817 novel by Jane Austen, Anne Elliot (Johnson) is still struggling to accept the end of her relationship with Frederick Wentworth (Jarvis). Now faced with his return, Anne must navigate the advances of her handsome cousin (Golding) or hold out for her old flame.
ONE OF MANY fabrications of Netflix’s take on Persuasion is a scene in which our heroine, Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson), describes a dream. In it, Anne finds herself caught in the arms of an octopus before realising that the tentacles belong to her — that she is “sucking my own face”. One wonders if such a phrase would ever have passed the lips of Austen, who occupies pride of place in the pantheon of great English writers.