this production never really get off the ground for me . the plot be so cut up a to be disjoint and the production be so short that unless you have read the novel or see a good adaptation ( like the 1995 one with amanda root ) youre go to be a bit lose since there no time for character development . i like sally hawkins a anne and but the rest of the cast fell rather short of what they should have be . mrs. croft be far too old and a be anne elder sister elizabeth . mary utter everything in such throbbing accent that the general peevishness and selfishness of her character be lose . much good be sophie thompson mary and whose selfishness and sense of ill usage be so well establish that by the time wentworth suggest anne stay with the injured louisa and mary object that she and a louisa sister in law and should stay instead and you can not imagine anyone less suit to do so . in this version and she might as well stay a she be insufficiently differentiate from anyone else in the production . rupert penry jones be nice to look at and but he make a much good st. john river ( 1995 jane eyre ) and probably because that character require less implied depth of feeling . i agree with the comment make earlier about the gig scene represent seem more like he be try to get rid of anne than do her a favor . likewise the accident scene represent it happen so fast and with so little context and you wonder what all the fuss be about . and move the speech that wentworth overhears in the novel to the beginning of this production be a critical misstep that only contribute to the disjointed nature of the script . my other problem with this version be the lighting . sometimes everything look like a scene from the csi morgue very very blue . other time the lighting be so bad it be hard to make out the scene very well and like when anne visit her old school friend and mrs. smith ( who and by the way and be suppose to be more or less paralyze . have her run up to anne on the street to tell her of mr. elliot awful character be such a violation that for a minute i couldn not think who she be i think she be one of the musgrove girl . and she might as well have be . all the girl be pretty much interchangeable ) . and the running scene at the end . in an era where propriety be at a premium and it hard to imagine gentle anne tear all over bath like some demented hoyden . how silly can you get . it too bad . sally hawkins have all the making of a good anne elliot and but she be completely hamstring by a poorly organize script and an over truncated production .