EUREKA! I have found it. I have found the key word.
The key word is ENJOY!
I ENJOY being alive. I ENJOY breathing the air. I ENJOY being able to sleep, to dream, to think, to write. I ENJOY reading books. And I especially ENJOY writing personally-revealing reviews of personally-revealing books that ignite the imagination and send the mind flying!
OK. OK. Enough about me. What about you?
Why might you want to read Jane Austen's "Persuasion"?
Why, to ENJOY the book of course!
OK. Very good. But why stop there? Why stop at the ENJOYMENT of reading the book? Why not let your mind go beyond the ENJOYMENT of reading the book? Why not keep going until you arrive at the ECSTASY of seeing, hearing, experiencing something imaginary, something ideal, something unreal, as if it were really happening right here, right now, in real life?
Sounds great! But how?
By bringing the book to life in your mind.
Yes. Yes. Yes. But how? How??
By seeing the 2007 movie “Persuasion,” starring Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, BEFORE reading the book. That's how.
I did see/hear the movie BEFORE I read the book. And I'm glad I did.
As I read the book, the movie kept coming back to life in my mind.
In addition, the book revealed -- in depth and in detail -- all of those seemingly minor thoughts, feelings, and incidents that did not make their way into the movie.
By means of the written word, a book can open a character's heart and mind to the reader. By means of voice-over, a movie can do the same kind of thing. But not to the EXTENT that a book can.
Be that as it may, whatever the movie may lack in such EXTENT is made up for, many times over, by the movie's astounding EFFECT.
Indeed, insofar as EFFECT goes, there is something in the movie that surpasses anything and everything in the book; in any other book I have ever read; and in any other movie I have ever seen.
That extraordinary "something" that I am raving about is the kiss scene. Not just the kiss, mind you. The scene!
(Not to mention the love letter -- and the race against time -- leading up to the kiss scene.)
In that kiss scene, a moment of time becomes an eternity of bliss. The infinity of space shrinks to nothing. Nothing except! Nothing except a small warm pocket of space wherein there is room enough for only two human beings, two people, a man and a woman, this man and this woman. Each is the whole world of the other.
What will become a kiss evolves and revolves between the two of them, binary stars, paired, gradually encircling one another, beyond the reach of all the universe that is not their own. It is just the two of them. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Try as I may, I cannot tell you in words. The book cannot tell you in words. You have to see the movie to believe it. Seeing it, hearing it, you will believe it, even though it is nothing but make-believe.
"Nothing but make-believe"??? What a thing to say!!!
As if make-believe were of little or no value. A next to nothing sort of thing. A waste of time! of money!! of life itself!!!
OK. OK. I stand corrected. How dare I down-talk make-believe!
Let me slow down here, stop, and ask myself a couple of questions:
1. What would thinking be like without the make-believe of imagination?
2. What would life be like without the make-believe of dreaming?
Those two questions have these two answers:
1. We cannot think without imagining.
2. Nor can we live without dreaming.
So, no more down-talking make-believe. Not by me anyway.
OK. Agreed.
Now that's settled, I can turn my back on things that do not interest me, and return to what does -- i.e., "Persuasion" -- book and movie.
Much as I much prefer books to movies, the "Persuasion" movie of 2007 is exceptional. So exceptional that, if I had to choose one over the other, either the book or the movie, I would choose the movie.
By the grace of good fortune, however, I don't have to choose between the two. For, I have both: the movie and the book.
Each is excellent. Both are superb. And the two together are scintillatingly synergistic.
When push comes to shove, however, my mind must admit, and my heart must confess, that, to my way of thinking and feeling, the movie is even better than the book, simply because of the kiss scene.
That kiss scene is so good, so well done, so realistic, so believable, that I believe it to be real, even though it is make-believe.
Is believing in make-believe such a bad thing? I think not.
Speaking of thinking, consider this:
Once you have seen/heard the love letter, the race against time, the kiss scene, and the other scenes in the movie, you can replay them in your mind by conducting "search and enjoy" missions: just pick up the book; flip to the juiciest pages; and read to your heart's content.
What could be easier? What could be more enjoyable?? Certainly not the realities of everyday life. Ugh! Why get into that when you can get into this: a good book.
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Reviews with images
Not able to view in " region 1" why promote it in region 1 . Company will not replace or refund.
Top reviews from other countries
Maria OM
Buenísima película fiel a la obra de Jane Austen
Reviewed in Spain on December 25, 2019
MS ALEX WATERHOUSE
I received the wrong version.
Reviewed in Australia on July 17, 2020