Formative Performances: Amanda Root in “Persuasion”

I wouldn’t be me if I only wrote about one Jane Austen heroine and the actress who played her.

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite Austen novel – in fact, my favorite novel, period – but I think Persuasion is the best love story. It also has my favorite Austen heroine, Anne Elliot. Anne is kind, loving, intelligent, and practical, but too easily persuaded, too easily convinced to mistrust her own (correct) instincts, and puts too much stock into the opinions of others.

The 1995 film version of Persuasion has Amanda Root as Anne, giving a subtle, moving, lovely performance. Through the course of the movie, you follow Anne’s growth into a more confident person. The changes that Root (and the makeup department) give Anne are so subtle that you barely notice them right away, which makes the change more meaningful.

By the end of the film, Anne receives one of the most beautiful love letters in all of fiction from a man who loved her eight years ago, a man whose heart she broke. He writes to her again, eight years later, revealing that he still loves her, that all of his resentment and feelings of rejection couldn’t overcome his powerful feeling for her. It’s a gorgeous letter that leaves many a reader swooning, and there’s never any doubt in our minds that Anne is worth the wait and worth every word.