This version of "Persuasion" ends with a notoriously ugly kiss. But wait there's more. The direction is pitiably bad. Shergold doesn't know where to point the camera or why to point it there. The cinematography is nonexistent. Scenes are too heavily lit or mired in darkness. In key scenes, a key character's face is in shadow, for no good reason.
Sally Hawkins doesn't understand Anne Elliot. Anne is a quiet, humble person, but she isn't the complete nothing that Hawkins is trying, and failing, to play. You never see Anne Elliot here. You only see a 21st century actress who isn't suited to her role and who struggles, right up to that final ugly kiss, to figure out what to do.
Rupert Penry Jones is also miscast. He looks too untouched to have been a sea captain. He'd make a good school teacher.
Sally Hawkins doesn't understand Anne Elliot. Anne is a quiet, humble person, but she isn't the complete nothing that Hawkins is trying, and failing, to play. You never see Anne Elliot here. You only see a 21st century actress who isn't suited to her role and who struggles, right up to that final ugly kiss, to figure out what to do.
Rupert Penry Jones is also miscast. He looks too untouched to have been a sea captain. He'd make a good school teacher.