Dakota Johnson is nothing less than enchanting in "Persuasion," director Carrie Cracknell's modern-in-attitude adaptation of Jane Austen's 200-year-old novel.
Johnson plays Anne Elliot as an eye-rolling, wink-winking, fourth wall-busting charmer who brings the audience along with her in her quest for romantic redemption. The character's perky level of sass may not be as she was originally committed to the page, but Austen's works have proved nothing but adaptable, and Johnson makes the character, and thereby the story's telling, work.
Anne, the middle daughter of a vain narcissist (Richard E. Grant, delightfully hamming it up), is lovesick over her parting with Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), a penniless sailor with whom she broke off her engagement because of his lack of wealth and social stature. That was seven years ago and Anne is still wallowing in her depression when Frederick, now a Captain, comes back into her life, though their recoupling has several hurdles in its way.
