The latest Jane Austen adaption, Persuasion, stars Dakota Johnson as a forlorn woman who believes she’s lost her chance at love. The story follows Johnson as Anne Elliot, mourning the love she had for Captain Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) after having been persuaded to give him up by her family.
The trailer opens with Anne laying on a beautiful hillside in a blue dress, reminiscing about the life she could have had. She narrates the story and describes her family in unfavorable detail. Her father Sir Walter Elliot (Richard E. Jenkins) is a vain man obsessed with his own reflection and her sister Mary Musgrove (Mia-Mckenna Bruce) pretends to be a caring person when her disinterest in her own children says the opposite.
Anne’s told to pick herself up and give love another chance after so many years have passed, and when she goes to mock Wentworth, he just so happens to walk in, making for an awkward reintroduction. She notes how handsome he’s gotten, revealing that she’s not fully over him.
As the trailer progresses, we see Anne accidentally spill a bottle of champagne on her head, and we’re introduced to Mr. Elliot (Henry Golding), the cold-hearted cousin of Anne whose aims aren’t fully known.
Netflix has described it as an excitable new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s and Johnson effortlessly breathes new life into what some might see as just another romantic period piece. The book was posthumously published six months after her death in 1817, and although it’s not one of her more famous ones like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, it still has its devoted fans.
Persuasion will release on Netflix July 15.