Mansfield Park

I have to wonder if the folks who are praising this film to the skies have ever read the book. I am not a Jane Austen purist - if I were, I could not say that the Root/Hinds version of Persuasion was my favorite Austen adaptation, which it is. This is Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park, NOT Jane Austen's.

First, Rozema gives us a feisty, spirited Fanny Price, who tells off Aunt Norris and Sir Thomas, who accepts Henry Crawford's proposal, and then rejects it the next day (a la JA herself with Harris Bigg-Wither). In this MP, Sir Thomas deserves to be "told off." He is portrayed as a lecherous "dirty old man," who leers at Fanny and Mary Crawford throughout the film.

We have all heard about the additions Rozema made to the film. She deals with the slavery issue in a very heavy-handed way, beating us over the head with it whenever possible. Tom Bertram is not the empty-headed fop he is in JA's book; here he is just as much an abolitionist as Fanny, and it is his sketchbook filled with incriminating drawings of Sir Thomas abusing the slaves in Antigua that Fanny finds. In fact, Rozema's take on Tom is rather bizarre; in the book, his arguments with his father center around his irresponsibility and his profligacy. In the film, while Sir Thomas tries to scold his son for these faults, Tom takes him to task for his activities in Antigua. What I found odd was that, if Tom is such an abolitionist, why would he be so free and easy with money tainted by the slave trade?

Rozema left out what I consider to be some very important people and scenes. William Price and the Grants are nowhere to be seen; as a result, there is no amber cross bought with prize money, no distress over which chain to wear to the ball, no one to accompany Fanny to Portsmouth. Fanny's dislike and distrust of Henry are never fully explained. We never get to see the outing to Sotherton and, while we do see Maria flirting relentlessly with Henry, we never see him playing one sister off against the other. Fanny's disapproval of the theatricals is never explained either. In Rozema's version, it seemed as if Fanny was simply not invited to be in the play, instead of being unalterably opposed to it. The scene with Fanny playing Anhalt to help Mary Crawford rehearse is also completely wrong. Mary starts caressing Fanny, while Edmund watches with his eyes almost popping out of his head. So, instead of Edmund giving in and joining the play in order to spare his family the embarrassment of publicity, we are left with the impression that he takes on the role of Anhalt just so that he can justify having Mary run her hands all over him.

Next, we have the scenes at Portsmouth. Here, we have Henry sending Fanny a display of fireworks and doves, and then we see her accepting his proposal and sealing the bargain with some less-than-chaste kisses - in public, no less! The (in)famous sex scene between Maria and Henry takes place at Mansfield Park rather than in London and, because Rozema has played with JA's chronology of events, Fanny is already back from Portsmouth, and it is she who catches them in the act. Edmund is present for the aftermath, where Maria tries to defend her actions.

Another thing that galled me no end is that Mary Crawford's defense of her brother's actions is done in person, at Mansfield Park. She is patronizing towards all concerned, including Sir Thomas, who has finally stopped leering by this point. The newspaper item announcing Maria and Henry's behavior to the world is read by Fanny, and the culprits' full names are used, which is also not the way it happened in the book.

A couple of people walked out about 1/3 of the way through the screening I attended, and several others walked out just as the credits began. The Wishbone versions of Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abbey resemble the source material more than this trash does. Shame on you Ms. Rozema, shame on you!

This is the absolute worst adaptaion of a classic novel in existence. I am very sorry that Miss Austen is not alive to defend her work for such disgusting adaptaions as this. The added sub plot about slavery was totally inappropriate. I'm not saying that it wasn't an issue at the time I'm only saying that Miss Austen chose to leave it out of her novel so who are we to put it in there. PLease I beg all fans of Jane Austen's writing to speal out against this horrid movie based ever so loosly around her classic and wonderful novel.

This isn't an awful movie. It's quite watchable. Some of the acting, especially from Pinter is excellent.

But the rest resembles those films made from classic novels in the 30s where no one concerned in making it had time to read the book. A quick treatment by a college student, a quick script conference, then off we go. Rozema has almost no idea of what the book is about but is entirely unembarrassed by her ignorance in her interview on the DVD.

Austen fans don't have to wait long to discover just how far off the wavelength she is. The first contact between Sir Thomas and Fanny is a reproof for running through MP's corridors shrieking like a banshee. Lines are taken from Mary Crawford in the book and given to Fanny in the film. How's that for missing the point? One by one characters appear looking no more recognisable than if they were appearing in a literary celebrity edition of Scooby Doo.

I agree with other reviewers that if the film was called something else and the characters had different names, it would be impossible to trace it's origins to Austen's book which is definitely not a conventional love story about bright young things getting together having overcome a few obstacles.

There's very little to choose between the morals of Rozema's characters, so nothing of the catastrophic descent into the abyss is associated with the production of Lover's Vows, nor do we have any glimpse of Rushworth and Crawford vandalising Sotherton. Mrs Norris is one of the most deliciously evil creations in literature - Rozema reduces her part to a few lines. Thomas Betram is a "modern" artist - yikes! William Price, Fanny's brother and one of the key relationships in the book, is missing altogether. Susan, her sister, has been reading too many Style magazines.

Mansfield Park might have been a bit like this had it been written by Georgette Heyer or even Jackie Collins. As an Austen adaptation it is execrable. But it's so far off the mark, that as something else entirely, it's not all that bad. Maybe they should just change the title.

Had this movie taken on another title, or be a modern version of the novel, I would've been more forgiving. Let me repeat again: this movie does not reflect Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, neither does the main character portray Fanny Price in the least bit.

For those who have never read Mansfield Park, this book Austen's "virtuest" novel. Generally people don't like Fanny because she is too modest.

Fanny Price is an exceptional character. Her modesty can never be properly portrayed by Hollywood. So I hope that no one will try to make another movie out of this novel. I love Pride and Prejudice as much as I love this novel, but this novel is far different from P&P. P&P can be captured on screen without boring out the audiences but MP cannot. Nevertheless, this does not make the novel any less valuable.

Fanny Price may not be as attractive as Elizabeth Bennet. But if these characters existed in real life, I would trust Fanny over Elizabeth any day. As witty as Elizabeth is, her judgement is faulty (as a result, the 2nd half of the title is called "prejudice"). She cannot discern who Wickham is, and believed in his good appearance. Fanny is just the opposite: her intuition is un-mistakable. Who, except for Fanny, knew that the handsome Henry Crawford was un-trustworthy?

Jane Austen wrote gold. Its It's a shame that the people making this movie didn't have any faith in the author. The changes were enough that this is almost a different story.

If the story wasn't what they wanted to produce, maybe they could have called it "Fanny Price - Based On Jane Austen's Mansfield Park". Then maybe I wouldn't have felt deceived.

Jane Austen was a spectacular author. In this book she was able to take the loan of a gold chain and turn it into the biggest dilemma of the century. It's a storyline that really shows Fanny's character and it really stood out to me in the book, but it was left out of this movie.

The character of the uncle was extremely changed. It was quite annoying.

The actors and actresses all did a tremendous job in this movie. That's why I gave it a 7. I wish I could have seen them all in Mansfield Park.