A revamped Masterpiece Theater (now simply Masterpiece) debuted last night with a production of Jane Austen's Persuasion. This film represents the first installment of Masterpiece's promised "complete Jane Austen."
Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the production. First, they shoved the novel into an hour and a half film, which led to a rushed feeling. Second, they make the heroine, Anne Elliot, into a mouse, when in the novel she is the strong backbone of an otherwise self-indulgent family. Lastly, they bastardized one of the most important passages in Austen. Early in the story the male protagonist, Capt. Wentworth, informs his sister Sophia of his intent to find a wife. In the novel this is in private, in the Masterpiece film it is in front of everybody at a dinner party. In the book and film, Wentworth jokes about marrying the first pretty girl he can find. Then he turns serious. In the film he prattles on about finding a woman who cannot be "persuaded" easily, someone not easily influenced by others. The implication of the film is that this is a jab at Anne Elliot. But the novel says, "Anne Elliot was not out of his thoughts, when he more than seriously described the woman he wished to meet with. ‘A strong mind, with sweetness of manner’, made the first and last of the description." This is important because it not only tells us that from the beginning Wentworth thinks highly of Anne, but I happen to think this is the sum of Austen's view of the best woman: "strong of mind, with sweetness of manner." The film eliminates this line, substituting dialog that obscures both meanings.
Not that I have strong feelings on any of this, mind you.
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