My Review: Persuasion Pt. 2

Now for my second main, and most important, complaint of the recent Persuasion adaption: the story itself was cut and thrashed to death so as to make it at times hard to follow and at times laughable.

I don't know why ITV decided to try to do the adaptation in just 90 minutes (especially if Pride and Prejudice proves nothing else it proves that those of us who love Austen will sit through hours and hours to see her stories acted out for us) but having done so why on earth would they choose to waste valuable time following Anne around her house at the beginning and running all over Bath at the end? And if we are going to try to save valuable time, please don't tack on an ending that is so unnecessary. We want Austen stories to end with a kiss. We are happy to end it with a kiss. Why make up some silly ending about renting or buying her childhood home for her--especially since you never bothered to develop the story enough to indicate that the home was important to her. One area I would have liked to see some more time spent would have been Capt. Wentworth and Anne's relationship because I couldn't really figure out why it was the Capt. Wentworth would even want Anne in the end. For the most part I found her to be rather weak (which is not what she is in the book). In the adaptation she merely moves around from place to place at the insistence of others, falls and sprains her foot, quivers in the corner, or refuses to speak to a cousin because her father wouldn't want her to. In reality (book reality) she is a strong character who everyone relies on and really couldn't live without (even when they don't entirely recognize this themselves). After having Wentworth give a speech about his only requirement in a woman being a woman who knows her own mind I would think it would be important to show that now (8 years after their original courtship) Anne knew her own mind. I wasn't convinced. I could go on about the lack of story development, but I think I have made enough of a point to let it stand here. Besides who wants to talk about a lack of a story when we can talk about Rupert Penry-Jones who played Capt. Wentworth and who is the entire reason I will, despite all of its flaws, watch this movie over and over again and be happy about it. I suppose that there is really not much to say, except that I enjoyed very much watching him as Capt. Wentworth (even if he was a little too pretty and pale to be a weather-worn sea captain). So maybe lets just take a moment to look:

Also, I found this pic when I was searching for the one above and thought you might enjoy it:

Aren't the bows on his shoes precious? I wonder if the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City would/could try to get him? Cause I'd go several times for him.