Mark Moses

(On Cable TV, November 2021) Expectations matter a lot in how reviewers approach movies. You can take a look at Modern Persuasion and come away with two different conclusions simply based on what you know about it beforehand. If you come at it having read the Jane Austen repertoire, you already know that it’s a (as the title says) modern retelling of Austen’s last novel Persuasion… and you’re not likely to be impressed. Even a casual trawl of reviews available on the web will show a recurring theme of literate reviewers being disappointed in the adaptation. But not everyone has read the novel, and this is one of the cases where ignorance is an advantage. (Wait, did I really write this?)  Viewers coming to Modern Persuasion expecting just an average romantic comedy — or better yet, coming off a string of bottom-grade Hallmark movies—are likely to get a different impression with striking characters and blisteringly fast-paced dialogue. Our heroine is that favourite of modern romances: the funny, capable, beautiful heroine who, somehow, doesn’t have time for a boyfriend and so remains completely available when an old flame (well, the one old flame) walks back in her life, flush with dot-com cash. We all know where this is going, but Modern Persuasion does have the good sense to push the supporting cast to hilarious extremes and to layer rapid-fire dialogue to keep our attention. Alicia Witt does well in the lead role, but the supporting cast is filled with scene-stealers, most notably Liza Lapira as an outspoken pregnant lesbian, Mark Moses as an older executive trying to stay hip, and Bebe Neuwirth perfectly in her element as a sharp-tongued aunt. The dialogue is what powers most of Modern Persuasion — running at a mile a minute, piling up elaborate similes with punchlines in a way that may be exhausting but always worth a listen. The result is not without its weaker moments — there’s an attempt at creating suspense over an engagement that doesn’t work, for instance, and you can certainly argue that the cast is slightly too large to be consistently interesting. But as far as contemporary comedies featuring urban professionals, I can think of several worse choices than Modern Persuasion. Just don’t expect it to be the second coming of Jane Austen.