It’s always wine o’clock in Netflix’s just-released adaptation of Persuasion.

The adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel about love lost and then found again stars Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliott, a washed-up spinster of 27, who threw away her only chance at love when she rejected a proposal from Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), who at the time was penniless and seemingly without prospect.

Anne, who was persuaded by well-meaning family and friends to end the attachment, has regretted it ever since, as she is now alone and an unmarriageable object of pity in her family.

After her family falls on hard times, thanks mostly to her preening, social-climber father (played by Richard E. Grant), they must vacate the family estate, leading Anne to visit her silly, self-centered sister Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce). Mary is married to Charles (Ben Bailey-Smith), whose two sisters Henrietta and Louisa (played by Izuka Hoyle and Nia Towle), befriend Anne, just as Wentworth returns to town.

Wentworth is now a captain, successful and still single, and Anne’s heart still throbs for him. He, however, seems both unforgiving of Anne’s snub from years ago, and newly interested in Louisa, who definitely returns his affection.

All of this eats at Anne, who nevertheless remains unflaggingly kind to Louisa and attempts to apologize to Wentworth. Enter Anne’s distant cousin, and her father’s heir, William Elliott (Henry Golding), who attempts to woo Anne for reasons that may or may not be above-board.

This adaptation does not stray too far from the original story, but it does throw in some modern touches like Bridgerton-style color-blind casting, breaking the fourth wall à la Fleabag, and anachronistic concepts like self-care and calling former lovers “exes” and ranking potential lovers on a scale from one to ten. It also really leans into the cliche of bored middle-class housewife levels of wine-guzzling. Not everything works, but some of those changes are refreshing – for example, the casting.

The casting, for the most part, is really lovely; Johnson has no problem affecting a British accent and does a fine job embodying Anne’s sense of loss tempered by her innate goodness. Grant and Golding ham it up (within reason) as their respective over-the-top dandy gentlemen characters, and McKenna-Bruce makes her airheaded twit character somewhat endearing, and it’s easy to see why everyone loves Towle’s Louisa. Jarvis seems to be trying to channel his inner Colin Firth in his portrayal of the uptight, reserved Wentworth, but he’s a perfectly adequate object of Austenian desire.

There is, though, entirely too much of the winking asides and monologuing to camera by Anne, who seems to be always narrating; she does it as she sobs in the bath, as she cradles her pet rabbit, as she strolls through the fields…it would be better in smaller doses. Taking drags off of wine bottles also seems a bit out of character for Anne; this isn’t Real Housewives of Regency England. The ending also seems really rushed and does not follow the book.

It is a truth universally acknowledged (by critics, anyway) that this movie is a flop as an adaptation of Austen’s novel, and it is true that it doesn’t come close to the classic 1995 BBC movie starrring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds, which is regarded as the superior adaptation of all time, by some at least.

But Austen’s stories are constantly being upgraded for modern audiences; remember that it was also back in the ’90s that Emma begat Clueless, and that was a very good thing. And hey, at least the producers didn’t try to toss in a 50 Shades reference into the mix.

There’s no reason that someone shouldn’t adapt Persuasion for the ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ crowd, or that you shouldn’t give it a chance. As those tacky Home Goods signs say, the heart wants what it wants, and if this is the movie it wants, it should have it.