Being a huge Persuasion fan, I had to check out all versions out there. I was prepared for lower production qualities and staging as I'm familiar with the styles of other ITV versions of the same era. However, I was really disappointed by the casting and acting in this version of the story. I can overlook the age differences etc, but really Anne and Frederick had absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. It's hard to believe there was anything between them. It made it very difficult to feel vested in the characters at all. I almost wished the actors for Harville and Wentworth had switched places, as there was obviously more natural spark between Anne and Harville. Rather than seeing subtle emotions, more often than not, the actors were quite blank in their expressions. The direction for the critical scenes was so poor and awkward. For example, the falling down scene at the Cobb was so painful to watch. Rather than show a sense of urgency and panic, the actors stood apart gawking as if in slo-mo. The Admiral was the most pitiful actor to watch, with his overacting and awkward gestures. The only positive to this version is that it does follow the sequences in the book more faithfully, and I did like that there were more scenes between Anne and Frederick at the end. Too bad it wasn't done by a different set of actors.
Review of Persuasion
