Persuasion
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): July 15, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
16
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJul 15, 2022
Cracknell’s romp is, despite what the purists say, a perfectly pleasant variation of a text that could endure worse, but it feels stranded between two competing approaches. An honourable effort for all the bellyaching. Read full review
58
ColliderRoss BonaimeJul 15, 2022
In its own way, Persuasion is trying to persuade its audience that Austen was brilliant in her modernity, when Austen already handled that quite well without Cracknell, Bass, and Winslow’s help. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 8, 2022
This Persuasion chooses to wear its source material like a thin disposable skin, discarding many of the vital organs (brain, heart) and most ideas of subtlety as it goes. Austen may be immortal, but she's not inexhaustible; maybe it's time to tell another story and let her rest in peace. Read full review
50
IGNTara Bennett Jul 22, 2022
Persuasion is a disappointingly limp adaptation of one of Jane Austen’s great romances. While Dakota Johnson does her best to give director Carrie Cracknell a contemporized, charming version of Austen’s heroine Anne Elliot, the screenplay’s foundational reframing of the character strips away everything that makes the book’s version interesting and quietly heroic. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJul 18, 2022
The cast puts its effort into a slightly less underwhelming movie, one a little more willing to engage this gallery of personalities, which, insofar as they’re based on the characters in the novel, are just engaging enough to watch this once and never think about again. Austen works hard. But mediocrity, this movie reminds us, works harder. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 15, 2022
Individual scenes play better than the whole, just as some performances shine — McKenna-Bruce, Jarvis, Grant and even Ms. Johnson — and get the hang of dry Austen wit and its sometimes clumsy “try to keep up” updatings better than others. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 14, 2022
Transforming Persuasion into something generic and pitching it to viewers seduced by the likes of Bridgerton and Mr. Malcolm’s List illustrates not only a lack of imagination but a betrayal of the source material. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJul 14, 2022
Updating a classic is one thing; deliberately obscuring or burlesquing its points is another. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 12, 2022
Unfortunately, Persuasion isn’t a great movie, maybe not even a good one. But its problems are failures of filmmaking, not necessarily of adaptation: Cracknell, who has until now worked largely in theater, may make some choices that undermine her aims, but she gives no indication of being careless with the material—her affection for it comes through. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleChris VognarJul 11, 2022
Persuasion is a handsome film, but it doesn’t have much trust in its audience to think or feel for itself. Read full review
50
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiJul 8, 2022
The problem with "Persuasion" is it doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a bold, revisionist take on Austen with progressive colorblind casting and cutesy contemporary slang? Or is it a sentimental period romance that wants to get its audience's hearts fluttering as they sigh over the pining glances shared between Johnson's Anne and Cosmo Jarvis' (an endearingly awkward bright spot in the film) Wentworth? The result is a half-assed attempt at both, which only makes it all the more insulting. Read full review
47
PolygonPetrana RadulovicJul 15, 2022
Janky anachronisms and grating narration aside, the film is aggressively OK, though the dynamic side characters do most of the heavy lifting. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 15, 2022
Cracknell approaches the project with confidence and a clear (if clearly derivative) vision. Her compositions are striking and swooningly romantic at times, though she has a curious idea of Anne Elliot. Read full review
40
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeJul 14, 2022
The story’s heroine, its dialogue and even its themes of regret and loneliness seem to be swallowed up by the need to maintain an appearance of contemporary cheek. Read full review
40
Screen RantRachel LaBonteJul 8, 2022
There are bound to be viewers less familiar with the source material who are enchanted by Persuasion. However, the modern touches are just too persistent to ignore, and they take away something that the movie urgently needed — genuine depth. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 8, 2022
Jane Austen’s calm, subtle novel gets the Fleabag treatment in this smirking romcom; it has more wrong notes than an inebriated squadron of harpists, including everything but a last-minute rush in a barouche to Bath airport. Read full review
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