Persuasion, Fire Island and More: The Best and Worst Jane Austen Movie Adaptations

Find out if Netflix's latest movie adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion', starring Henry Golding and Dakota Johnson is worth watching

It's a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's classic novels lend themselves very well to the big screen. But not all movie adaptations are created equal.

Tatler ranks and reviews the most popular Jane Austen movie adaptations to help you make the best match when it comes to your watch list.

Fire Island (2022)

Rating: 10/10

Fire Island sets the gold standard for modern adaptations of great literary works. Joel Kim Booster, screenwriter, producer and lead actor, takes the story of Pride and Prejudice and truly makes it his own, drawing from his own experience as an Asian gay man.

The film follows an eccentric group of queer friends who navigate the pitfalls of modern love and romance in Fire Island, a party destination near New York historically frequented by the LGBTQ+ community. Rising stars in Hollywood Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang take on the lead roles of Noah and Howie, based on the two eldest Bennet sisters, delivering hilarious and heartwarming performances, bolstered by their easy chemistry with the supporting cast—Margaret Cho, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos and Torian Mille—who make up the rest of the Bennet family.

Booster captures the spirit of Jane Austen, weaving in intelligent, perceptive social observations, tackling issues of the unrealistic beauty standards, recreational drug use and consent, without forgetting what it sets out to be: a refreshing summer romcom celebrating love, friendships and culture.

Fun fact: The top three Jane Austen movie adaptions in Tatler's selection all pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours. Alison Bechdel herself came out on Twitter to settle disputes on Fire Island's status: “Okay, I just added a corollary to the Bechdel test: Two men talking to each other about the female protagonist of an Alice Munro story in a screenplay structured on a Jane Austen novel = pass."

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Rating: 10/10

Our feelings will not be repressed. You must allow us to tell you how ardently we admire and love Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. It has bewitched us body and soul.

Featuring an exceptional cast, breathtaking scenery and Dario Marianelli's immersive soundtrack performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the English Chamber Orchestra, this movie adaptation is a timeless classic and comes close to perfection, matched only by the iconic six-episode BBC series released in 1995 starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

Clueless (1995)

Rating: 9/10

There's a reason why Clueless has endured as one of our favourite romcoms for nearly three decades. Everything in this cult classic film, from the dialogue down to the costumes, has bled into present day pop culture. Even the crankiest cinema snob is willing to admit that this interpretation of Emma set in a high school in Beverly Hills deserves a watch.

EMMA. (2020)

Rating: 8/10

Autumn de Wilde's movie adaptation of Jane Austen's fourth novel owes most of its success to Anya Taylor-Joy, whose delightful performance as the meddling, precocious protagonist acts as an anchor to the different elements that make this film a joy to watch, from the cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt and editor Nick Emerson's stunning visuals to Alexandra Byrne's beautiful and historically accurate costumes.

At times, the film succumbs to a focus on style over substance, largely due to shortcomings of its screenplay. While it stays true to the structure, this interpretation misses the opportunity to explore the contradictions within Emma Woodhouse's character and her views on marriage, social standing and independence. The stunted development ultimately takes away from the ending's impact when she does finally accept George Knightley's marriage proposal without having to leave her home in Hartfield.

The exceptional performances of Josh O'Connor, Mia Goth, Johnny Flynn and Connor Swindells offer a degree of leniency in opinion towards the movie, now seen as the launchpad for these emerging actors' careers, which have since gifted us with such gems as Stardust, The Crown, Sex Education, and X.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

Rating: 7/10

It is easy to be sceptical of this film’s unique premise, even easier to brush it off as silly and not worth anyone’s time. But if you are to learn anything from Jane Austen’s most famous novel, is it not to put aside your pride and prejudice?

Based on Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 novel of the same name, this action-packed film stays surprisingly true to the original novel with humorous spins on key plot points. For instance, the famous rejection of Mr Darcy’s proposal is reimagined as a glorious fight scene, during which Elizabeth Bennet, played by Lily James, wields a metal poker and letter opener as deadly weapons against the gentleman.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ends up being a great escapist watch because it commits to its absurdist apocalyptic premise, managing to retell this familiar story with horror and gore. But there is one major make-or-break, which is actor Sam Riley’s decision to portray Mr Darcy with a distracting, unnaturally strained voice, and your enjoyment of the film is based on whether you can ignore it because you will definitely not get used to it!

Persuasion (2022)

Rating: 2/10

This film adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1817 novel Persuasion is a disaster. Right from the start, we recognise the inspiration that director Carrie Cracknell and screenwriters, Ronald Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, take from beloved romcoms, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Fleabag. But it quickly falls short of what it aspires to achieve: the former’s engaging, unflinching narration and the latter’s quick pace and cutting dry wit.

The dialogue is excruciating. When it is not explaining the plot to its audience as if they were 15-year-old students in English class, it is punctuated with contrived, cringe-worthy and frankly outdated internet speak that is an affront to Jane Austen’s beautiful prose. In fact, if we were to recreate this review in this film’s unfortunate narrative style, we would see the iconic English author looking directly at the camera quoting Justin Bieber’s viral TikTok moment: “No. Immediately no. We’ve seen what we needed to see.”

Hollywood darlings Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding could not save this poorly produced film from its doomed fate. It even became its downfall as screenwriters gleefully neglected the character of Captain Frederick Wentworth, missing an opportunity to tap into the talented Cosmo Jarvis, who had previously delivered a stunning performance as Sebastian in critically acclaimed period drama Lady Macbeth. As a result, the reading of Captain Wentworth’s famous letter scene, what should be the romantic climax of the film, was a spectacular letdown.

We all know that Netflix is capable of creating masterpieces but it seems that the streaming giant is adamant on doing away with quality writing and writers, opting to spend its money instead on a high-profile cast.

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Topics

pride and prejudice persuasion henry golding netflix jane austen

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