I watched manic pixie period drama dream girl last night — oh, I mean Persuasion, so you don’t have to. Thankfully I had a glass of wine with me, so I got sleepy and don’t remember much, but I’ll put my thoughts into some bullet points. This is coming from someone who has never read the novel, but I did watch the older period drama adaptation years ago.
The cinematography and set design wasn’t terrible, but you could tell that they were trying to be several different movies at once. Mostly Pride and Prejudice 2005, Emma 2020, and the new Little Women movie.
It was style without any substance behind it. I didn’t care about the characters at all.
Dakota Johnson’s acting is incredibly one note. When she’s not being smarmy during her talking lines to the camera (and there are so many of those), she’s either just smiling when people are talking to her, or looking sad. There’s also a scene where her sister in law falls off of a ledge by the ocean, and there’s literally no panic in her voice when she asks for someone to fetch a doctor.
Wentworth’s actor did well, and his performance was clearly very nuanced. His eyes always seem to look sleepy though, which isn’t really a complaint, since that’s just how his face is, but it’s just something I observed.
“Now we’re worse than strangers. We’re exes.”
“Now we’re worse than exes. We’re friends.”
“He’s a ten. I never trust a ten.”
Honestly it felt like everyone was acting circles around poor Dakota. I have nothing else to compare her acting to, so maybe she’s actually decent, and the direction, and obviously writing, led her astray?
A huge pet peeve I have with period dramas is when they feel as if they have to make it known who the main character is. Usually they give them more current looking hairstyles, or just have them leave their hair down completely. This happens a lot to Anne here. If she doesn’t have bangs prettily framing her face, her hair is down, or she’s wearing quirky little hats. It’s very distracting when everyone else around her looks as if they’re in more period appropriate attire with period appropriate hairstyles to boot.
They gave Anne a quirky little rabbit. I have no idea why.
She breaks the 4th wall so many times. It’s something I love to see in a good mockumentary, and Fleabag did it well too, but it just ain’t working here.
I think it’s the vibes. The vibes are off because this story is supposed to be more sad (until their happy ending). What is with all this hateful sarcasm, and very sad attempts at comedy?
They've tried to make Anne a Lizzy/Emma hybrid. Someone make it stop.
Anne literally describes a face sucking octopus dream that she has to her distant viscountess relation, where she then discovers in the dream that she herself is the octopus. What.
Don't worry, though, she and Wentworth get back together in the end. I feel nothing.
Well, all in all, the movie was pretty to look at. I didn't hate the concept of a fourth wall breaking period drama, but this was the worst story they could have picked for something like this. Just make something original, maybe? Stop trying to use Jane Austen's name, as well as other period dramas, for a quick cash grab.
