austen and chick flicks

As I mentioned in my mini-review, I liked The Notebook. It's a well-made chick flick. But chick flick it remains.

Compare it to the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion. Considering the recent adaptation of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley¹, and the no less than five more famous Austen adapations of 1995-6², why compare The Notebook with Persuasion? Well, those are the last two movies I've watched. But more to the point: because they tell the same story.

Persuasion is the story of Anne Elliot, ignored middle daughter of an uppity baronet, who, as a teenager, was persuaded by her mother-figure friend to reject an engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a poor sailor she loved but who had "nothing to recommend him but himself". She meets Wentworth again, romantic complications ensue, and, well, you know the rest.

The Notebook is about Allie Hamilton, beautiful daughter of a Southern gent, and Noah Calhoun, an impossibly-romantic, poor country boy, who fall in love as teenagers. Her mother convinces her to break off the romance, she goes off to college, he goes off to war, she gets engaged to another wealthy Southener, and they meet again. She has to choose between her fiance and her first love, and, well, you know the rest.

Persuasion is not Austen's best work. Sense & Sensibility is more heartfelt, Pride & Prejudice more witty, Mansfield Park deeper, and Emma just better all over. It's short, and has a suspiciously rushed ending, which probably has something to do with the onset of the disease that would kill her soon after completing the novel. With the exception of super-prig Fanny Price, Persuasion's Anne Elliot is probably the least likeable Austen heroine. She's a dull, depressed, wishy-washy, not-particularly-attractive, old maid.

Likewise, BBC's 1995 adaptation of the novel is far from the best movie based on her books. It's basically a television movie of the week. The budget restrictions are apparent, especially the incongruous last shot, lifted from another movie entirely. The Notebook is lavishly produced, with a classic Jazz soundtrack, memorable ferris wheel, a taste of the small town South, and the (gag) goose-Gosling scene.

Amanda Root's performance in the leading role is perfect. It's more than that: she's defined the way I view Anne Elliot. Rachel McAdams also gave a good turn, though, to which performance McAdams adds the advantages of being five years younger and hot.

Those are the arguments in favor of The Notebook. I won't attempt to argue that Persuasion is the better movie, but I do give it the same rating (7 out of 10 on my personal scale), and I'll give some reasons why.

Amanda Root/Anne Elliot is extremely understated, emotions betrayed only by glances. Allie Hamilton/Rachel McAdams seems almost neurotic in comparison.

Anne Elliot accepts her share of the responsibility for her tragic breakup. The Notebook falls back on the pussy excuse of her mother hiding the letters.

The Notebook tells not only the story of their falling in love, but also the final end of their love affair. The part corresponding to the events in Persuasion - the most interesting part - takes up barely a quarter of the movie.

Anne Elliot faces obstacles that, while slight by modern standards, are sufficiently worrisome given her character. When Allie does not immediately take back Noah, the only reason she can come up with is an obligation to go forward with her engagement. This excuse doesn't hold water now, it didn't in the late Forties - hell, it didn't even in Regency-era England, when Austen herself reneged on an engagement because she did not love the man.

As I consider The Notebook to be an above-average example of a typical Hollywood romance, it strikes me more than ever just how unromantic Jane Austen was. Unlike the hysterical Brontë sisters, pining away on the moors, Austen wrote about the real world, a world she saw with an exceptionally sober mind. Austen's works are not so much about romance as they are about self-realization, the true nature of power, and British notions of morality. Perhaps the only reason she deals so much with romance is because that, as it related to the institution of marriage, was the overwhelming object of the society she lived in.

This realism and relevance is the difference between a chick flick and what I consider a seriously good romance. For me, a good romantic story can't be solely about romance, any more than a good love scene can consist solely in repetitions of the phrase "I love you". I am not saying a movie solely about relationships cannot be good: just look at When Harry Met Sally. But Relationships do not equal Romance. Romance in fiction is an escape from reality, from responsibility, and from untidiness. Of course, romance does happen in the real world, but it is complicated, and all the more poignant for being part of life in general.

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¹ Talk about just-missed casting: could there be a more perfect name for an Austenian actress than Knightley? Makes me want to write a gender-bent adaptation of Emma.

² Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thomson, Kate Winslet, and Hugh Grant; BBC's Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth; and three Emmas: Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale, and Alicia Silverstone