#p.s. sorry article from vogue or vanity fair or whatever it was that first set off the warning bells:

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we watched netflix persuasion until it had like 30 minutes left and everyone decided they would rather go to bed instead (ahaha!) and i would say at this point, here is my assessment-- 

i am definitely of the demographic where i actually find the “talking to the camera in between sips of wine” thing pretty diverting, i’ll admit. i like her walking through the house explaining the characteristics of her awful fam to us, her offscreen friends. i totally get finding it annoying but i find that conceit pretty enjoyable. (i also enjoyed it a lot in enola holmes, fleabag, miranda, etc., and of course shows like the office.) i realized watching this movie that i think the character dakota johnson is playing is actually pretty fun as her own thing, and if this was a movie about a regency spinster who randomly decided EFF MY ANNOYING FAMILY, I DON’T CARE ABOUT BEHAVING MYSELF ANY LONGER, TIME TO BE WINE DRUNK 24/7 AND TELL THESE FOOLS WHAT’S WHAT and then started blurting out weird things at dinner parties and wearing jam moustaches and pouring gravy on her head and slipping in her own pee in the forest and always always having a drink in her hand and a jim halpert smirk on her face, it wouldn’t necessarily be bad. it is, at least, a very distinct character choice, lololol, and i think she’s funny and winsome at it.

however -- and this really goes without me even stating it, i simply add my voice to the despairing chorus -- it is NOT anne elliot and it is NOT persuasion and the idea of people thinking that it IS persuasion because they haven’t read the book is pretty upsetting, and there’s the rub. it definitely makes me regret that it’s so common right now for entertainment to have to be an adaptation or some part of a preexisting hyped fandom, because i think this would have been a fun tone for a movie if it was, you know, AN ORIGINAL STORY! and it would be neat if bridgerton’s popularity made a space for some new regency romance stories in film & tv. but alas!

also wentworth is SO underwhelming and devoid of personality that it’s a real “her??” arrested development situation. girl! WHAT? why are you screaming “LOVE ME OR KILL ME, IDIOT” into a throw pillow about HIM? run off with henry golding!! that’ll show ‘em all! (that, for the record, is how the not-persuasion original movie would go. YAS!)

my one unmitigated compliment is that i like the set design and, like, the look of this film. it’s been a rainy week and while i love a rainy week, i did enjoy seeing all the bright colors and stuff. (are bright colors very persuasion? probably not! but we’re beyond all that!)

oh also, before i forget! i think one way this movie’s approach COULD have worked is if anne was so sassy to the camera when talking to us, but still always very quiet and measured in her actual interactions with other characters. i still don’t think it’s quite anne to be so god damn sassy in her wry observations about the very selfish people around her, but that would be a way to highlight how very internal all her thoughts and feelings are and how little the people in her life care to see the real her beyond what she can do for them. so i think if they’d had restraint in how they portrayed interacting-with-others-in-the-world anne, it would’ve felt more attuned to the original story. but of course, they did not do that!