* Finally Persuaded *

 I thought I did not have time for fiction...until I saw the trailer for Netflix's Persuasion and I read the comments:

Most comments, especially in Facebook, were negative. All of them were like 

"YOU RUINED MY FAVE AUSTEN!!!"

So, due to this will be the next Internet drama (for hopeless romantics like me) and I did not want to be left out, I downloaded Persuasion in my iPhone (it's free, btw, check it out) and started reading. Oh you can also read it HERE in Google Books. 

People in the comments section were all saying about how Anne is dark and brooding. But as I started reading, I somehow read her thoughts with a tone of sarcasm. It became more apparent to me during when Louisa had that fall and she commented bitterly:

Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to him now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether ...like all qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits. She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

I saw Anne in the book as someone who filled herself with other people in order to ignore her unhappiness. She endured her family's impudence with her as she never thought she deserved any happiness in this world, especially after what happened with Captain Wentworth. But, I don't think she ever succumbed to self-pity like in the movie; crying in baths and drinking wine. I don't think she even liked her own company in the books as she was always going out, like in Bath, she even sought her old schoolteacher. 

The way the movie handled all the characters were basically butchering. Some characters were reduced to being one-dimensional. Louisa and Henrietta were supposed to be free-spirited and well-educated. Louisa in the movie was obsessed with matchmaking and reduced to "studying" to impress a guy. Henrietta was just a bubbly little sister. Mary was gold, of course, but she was already simple in the book. The brooding Captain Benwick was just background. 

...And where were all the worrrrdddsss in Captain Wentworth's letter about how he endured his heartbreaaaaakkkk! The one thing that you should NEVER EVER ruin in a Jane Austen adaptation is the climax: the love confession. But, this one totally ruined it.

I thought the movie would give something new and dramatic to Mr Elliot's ending, but, NO. It became just another (unnecessary) scene. The whole concert scene which I looked forward to was bland. Maybe Persuasion is just Dune; unadaptable, until Denis Villeneuve.

So, this movie is not Jane Austen's Persuasion, it is just, Persuasion. If you really have finished all the movies in your list, then you can go for this. Better to watch Emma, which was a bit slow but the climax was done beautifully.