This article originally appeared on Variety.
Back in 1995, in the midst of cinema s brief fixation with Jane Austen, director Roger Michell made the definitive film of Persuasion : as literate and elegant as it was underestimated upon release. That same year, Amy Heckerling set the bar for modernized Austen adaptations with her lithely funny and era-defining Emma riff Clueless. A quarter-century later, the straightforwardly titled Modern Persuasion falls some way short of either benchmark. Refashioning Austen s bittersweet final novel about love surmounting prickly English class politics as a peppy romantic comedy of missed connections among the moneyed New York media set, Alex Appel and Jonathan Lisecki s film is both too innocuous and too flatly imagined to stir much feeling either way.
Modern Persuasion Review: Alicia Witt s Appealing Presence Powers a Half-Hearted Jane Austen Update lmtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.