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Persuasion on Netflix may have been a bomb with critics, but other Jane Austen adaptations had more success.
The Netflix film starring Dakota Johnson currently has a 31 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it "patronizing," "misguided," and "a fundamental misunderstanding of Austen's work."
Austen's books, however, have provided directors with plenty of inspiration. They have won their casts and crews Oscars, launched stars, and introduced brand new audiences to the work of the British novelist.
Here are the five highest-rated (certified fresh) movie adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility and more on Rotten Tomatoes.
Top 5 highest-rated Jane Austen adaptations
5. Clueless (81 percent)
Though it has been fundamental to the teen movie canon for decades now, many viewers may still not know that the Alicia Silverstone movie is an updating of Emma for the slap bracelet era.
As fitting an Austen adaptation, the film is full of quotable one-liners that even the "ensembly challenged" can appreciate, and Paul Rudd is as good an Austen hunk as any. Plus, many of the totally '90s looks still look great today, something you can't say for your average bonnets and corsets take on the author.
4. Emma (85 percent)
Clueless may have reached higher cult status, but it is the other '90s Emma adaptation that critics preferred. Gwyneth Paltrow is perfectly cast as the privileged, conceited heroine whose attempts at matchmaking her friends causes chaos in her own love life. And with Alan Cumming, Toni Collette and Ewen McGregor in supporting roles, the film as a whole matches its central performance in terms of quality.
3. Pride and Prejudice (87 percent)
The 2005 Pride and Prejudice had a hard job on its hands. It had to live up not only to Austen's most famous book, but also to the beloved BBC mini-series version of the story. While there might not be anything in this version that can match Colin Firth coming out of the lake, the 2005 Pride and Prejudice garnered four Oscar nominations and critical acclaim. Plus, putting Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Rosamund Pike (plus Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench and Penelope Wilton) together is a dream for British actress fans.
2. Love and Friendship (96 percent)
With Austen such an inherently British thing, fans may have been worried when they heard that the American Whit Stillman was to offer his take on Austen's early, unpublished Lady Susan. They should not have been concerned. Stillman's dry wit is a perfect fit for the material—the peas scene might be the funniest moment in any Austen adap. Less famous than other films on this list, Love and Friendship deserves a watch if just for its revelatory performance from Kate Beckinsale as the scheming widow Susan Vernon.
1. Sense and Sensibility (97 percent)
Ang Lee may have felt like another puzzling choice for Austen, but his early family-focused films like The Wedding Banquet served him well for this story's complex family dynamics.
It helps, of course, that he has an all-time great script to work on thanks to Emma Thompson, who rightfully won an Oscar for her screenplay (one of the film's seven nominations, including Best Picture).
Sense and Sensibility is the high point any Austen adaptation has to aspire to. Equally humane and hilarious, it also has some of Thompson's best acting work as Elinor Dashwood, a sister who puts her own happiness on the back-burner to find her siblings husbands. Add to that performance great turns from actors like Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant and you have an Austen adaptation for the ages.
Persuasion is streaming now on Netflix.
