Even when most all of Jane Austin's stories revolve around the politics of marriage and birth, I still cannot help but find them completely intriguing. There is something fascinating about watching Austen's women struggle between doing what is expected of them and marrying smartly to preserve name or fortune, and following their heart. It seems a bit sappy at first, but her heroines are so often people we want to succeed that we forgive her schoolgirl fantasies.
Again, this is made-for-TV film, but unlike "Northanger Abbey" it has none of the feelings of cheap and quickly made film. Quite the opposite, this is a lush and beautifully paced movie about an outsider rekindling a love lost when all hope seems gone. Without money, home, a name of repute and a relationship dead, killed by society for eight years, there seems nothing left for Anne Elliot except memories and her journal with regards to Capt. Wentworth.
Set in Bath, time grows short for Anne, whom providence has thrown in Wentworth's path again. A subtle glance, a bow of the head, a murmur of an introduction is all we need to know they love each other, even if it is unspoken. But a handsome, decorated naval man who has made his fortune in Spanish gold cannot go unnoticed for long, and suddenly the captain has become the prize of several eligible young women. Not only this, but Anne, too, finds herself being sought after by her cousin, William.
Everything in this story is about missed connections, misinterpreted words and letters too late. The people who surround Anne are false and full of flattery, but it is in her quiet, steadfast way that the audience observes and is distanced from them. Sally Hawkins plays Anne and gives a superb performance. So fully has she captured the essence of a martyr of fate, that lonely despondency in her eyes that even the smallest interactions become important for the audience. I did not realize until the end how fully I wanted Anne to succeed and find happiness, and from then I was quite taken aback at how well Hawkins did her job.
Other actors did fine work as well. Rupert Penry-Jones as the captain was nondescript, but Tobias Menzies as the duplicitous, charming yet slimy William was the strength of the male actors. Alice Kridge and Julia Davis as Anne's godmother and hypochondriac sister, respectively, rounded out Anne's rather quiet existence by giving her life meaning and substance.
The film as a whole is slow and delicate. Watching it is like touching lace or porcelain; a crescendo would shatter it or tear it to bits, so it never achieves anything more than the slightest amplification of itself. There is so little forced in it that we are allowed to become fully invested in our well-written characters which I am very happy for. Costumes, sets and lovely cinematography give the movie the feeling that it was done in watercolors, a slight, yet touching little work of romantic art.
3.5/4
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