There’s nothing new about updating the uptight romance and the late-18th century social commentary of English authorJane Austento the modern world. There’s also nothing inherently wrong about it. FromAmy Heckerling’s 1995CluelesstoAndrew Ahn’s 2022Fire Island,many movies have successfully brought Austen’s novels from the Regency period to the era of MTV or Grindr. Even those that have chosen a more straightforward approach to bringing her work to the screens have often managed to add something special to the stories by mixing contemporary sensibilities with super high waistlines, bonnets, and ballrooms.Joe Wright’s 2005Pride and PrejudiceandAutumn de Wilde’s 2020Emmaare both great examples. But then there are those that try and fail. There are those that simply cannot capture what makes Jane’s body of work so everlasting, or that can’t find the balance between the classic and the modern. There are those likeCarrie Cracknell’sPersuasion.
Even before Cracknell’s movie came out on Netflix, Austen lovers were horrified by how much of a far-cryDakota Johnson’s Anne Elliot was from the novel’s protagonist.In the film’s trailer, Johnson spouted snarky lines about being friends with her ex and glanced at the cameraà laPhoebe Waller-BridgeinFleabag.Jane’s complex, regretful, and time-weary heroine seemed nowhere to be found. And, when the movie finally dropped, everyone’s worst expectations came true. Instead of empathizing with Anne’s pain, like her creator did, screenwritersRon BassandAlice Victoria Winslowchoose to make light of it. Cracknell’s directorial choices certainly didn’t help the text, instead adding to its odd sense of humor by having Johnson play Anne Elliot in a style that is, indeed, very reminiscent of Waller-Bridge’s critically acclaimed show. In lieu of a sincere story about love lost and found, they deliver a rom-com laden with ironic millennial humor. Though it might be a stretchto rankPersuasionamong the worst Jane Austen adaptations ever made, it’s safe to say that it’s also not among the best. The movie just doesn’t work.
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However, not everything is bad in this uneven piece. Among intentionally anachronistic remarks that fall flat, at best, (“He’s a ten. I never trust a ten.”), there are a couple of jokes that actually land. And in an adaptation that fails at replicating the earnestness of its source material and subverting it at the same time, there’s at least one character that shines brighter than everyone else. Dakota Johnson might not have been a great choice to play Anne Elliot, butMia McKenna-Brucesure scores big time as Anne’s sister Mary.
Mary Musgrove is the youngest of Sir Walter Elliot’s (Richard E. Grant) daughters, married to the wealthy, yet untitled Charles Musgrove (Ben Bailey Smith). Both in Austen’s novel and in Cracknell’s movie, she is an arrogant, prideful woman that judges others by their social status and has somewhat questionable ideas with regards to her children’s upbringing. We are introduced to her when she invites Anne to stay at her home, and we soon learn that she wasn’t Charles first choice among the Elliot sisters and that the Musgroves would have preferred if he had married Anne. We also learn that Mary is somewhat of a social climber, who dreams of marrying her sister-in-law Henrietta (Izuka Hoyle) to a man that might help advance her status.
To sum it up, Mary isn’t that different from her father or her other sister, Elizabeth (Yolanda Kettle). Dakota Johnson’s Anne describes Sir Walter as a man that has never met a reflective surface he didn’t like. Though there is some exaggeration, this isn’t very far from how Austen portrayed him. Sir Walter is supposed to be the precise definition of vanity. The same goes for Elizabeth, the apple of her father’s eyes, who has inherited all of his snobbiness and pride. Mary is the second living proof that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, and having moved out of her father’s place did nothing to make her more pleasant.
The problem is that, in Cracknell’s movie, Mary isn’t that different from Anne, either – and neither are Elizabeth and Sir Walter. While Austen’s protagonist was a kind, mature woman that saw the harm that the Elliot pride could bring to someone’s heart, having given up on the love of her life due to his inferior social status, 2022 Anne is just as childish and vapid as the rest of her close family. Her constant sarcastic glances, blabbermouthing, and judgmental comments about everyone around her make her seem shallow and immature, like just any other Elliot – except this Elliot doesn’t know how to behave during dinners and is quick to tell everyone about her previous relationship status with her brother-in-law. With him in the room.
But the problem is that we are not supposed to see Anne as shallow and immature. The movie tells us over and over again that she’s not like the rest of her family. We hear it from Henrietta, from Mr. Elliot (Henry Golding), from Elizabeth, and from Sir Walter. The only person that dares to call her out is her so-called ex, Captain Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), but he changes his mind by the end. Worst of all, Anne herself believes this to be true. Her character is completely lacking in self-awareness, and this is precisely the territory in which McKenna-Bruce’s Mary finds her spot in the limelight.
You see, not only have Bass, Winslow, and Cracknell failed to capture what makesPersuasion, the novel, so unique, they also didn’t quite understand what makesFleabagtick. Waller-Bridge’s nameless main character, dubbed Fleabag by the fans, is a horrible person, and both she and the show are well-aware of it. In fact, most of Fleabag’s relatability has to do with just how much she knows herself to be trash: she embodies our deepest insecurities, our weaknesses, and our ugliest desires. When Fleabag laughs, we laugh alongside her, but there’s always a tinge of guilt beneath the joy. When she cries, we cry, but, deep down, we know she had a lot of it coming.Fleabagrelies on viewers identifying with its main character, but it doesn’t really believe her to be likable.Persuasion, on the other hand, hangs heavily on viewers wanting to be Anne Elliot, or at least wanting to be her friend. And while Fleabag knows she has done some awful things and has a ton of darkness in her heart, Anne Elliot doesn’t have a clue that she might not be a great human being.
Mary, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. She starts the movie just as clueless as Anne, but her exaggerated displays of helplessness and her blatant disdain for others make her somewhat more amusing to watch. She has that problematic charm of narcissistic villains, even though she’s not a bad guy in the story. But apart from Mia McKenna-Bruce’s obvious charisma and a little extra screen time, she doesn’t seem that different from Elizabeth and Sir Walter. That is, of course, until she begins to show signs that she knows quite well just how terrible she is and no, she isn’t sorry about it.
It all starts when she’s having a picnic with Anne, who swears her sister can’t tell she’s speaking in Italian, because that’s how infatuated Mary is with the sound of her own voice. Then, Henrietta and Louisa (Nia Towle) come along and try to invite Anne for a walk without Mary noticing. But Mary does notice and immediately calls her sisters-in-law out on it, inviting herself for the walk she didn’t even want to take in the first place. By the time she finally comes out and tells Anne that she just needs someone around to hear her talk, the movie has already given us many clues that she is the most self-aware character in the whole plot. This gives Mary the anger-inducing and yet delightful allure of a rich soap-opera whino mom, and her coronation as the film’s true MVP comes in the form of possibly the best bad mother line of 2022: “Ever since Louisa’s accident, life just seems so fragile and fleeting. It’s made me realize how important it is to spend time away from one’s children.”
Indeed, Ross and Winslow hit the jackpot when writing Mary’s character, to the point where she almost compensates for the shortcomings of their protagonist. However, there is also much to be commended in Mia McKenna-Bruce’s performance.Set to play mean girl Mia Karp in the upcoming PeacockVampire Academyseries, McKenna-Bruce wasn’t that well-known up untilPersuasioncame out. Still, she has quickly shown that she has what it takes, at least when it comes to playing snooty, self-centered women. Her eyes seem always ready to roll at anyone that dares come near her, and her body language in the film exudes ennui, arrogance, and spoiledness. The cherry on top of the cake is her unmatched RBF that makes her the perfect choice for 2022Persuasion’s Mary.
This, of course, begs the question of whether McKenna-Bruce’s Mary is what Jane Austen had in mind when she wrote the character. Well, probably not. But this is the Mary we got. And you know what? Thank God we got her!
