A Abadia de Northanger

It is a real art if the director together with actors are able to father a agreeable show based on a trivial story. In the middle of the movie, we realize the half of the time is gone, but nothing still happened. The team was able to create the tension so appealing that we are absorbed, even without any grandiose plot and without any impassioned actions. The second half of the movie is filled by actions more moving, obviously very well known due to its literal master. There is a touch of misfortune, a typical British frightening countryside serves as a suitable background. All necessary components for a romantic novel are present. As an interpreting of J. Austen, the movie plays with many internal thoughts belonging to people within a romantic tradition of the end of 18th century. It seems these conversational games can last forever, never mind what's going on anywhere else. Evident, but quite pleasant case of escapism. The whole movie is a nice adventure, but with a touch of honesty, it is also a bit waste of time.

NORTHANGER ABBEY is a charming version of the Jane Austen tale, covering somewhat familiar Austen territory in its tale of a young woman who comes to a vast estate and falls in love with an aristocratic young man who is willing to give up his inheritance to marry her, if he must.

It's beautifully lensed in color with excellent vistas of the English countryside and some impeccable performances from a first rate cast. FELICITY JONES and JJ FIELD are excellent as the young lovers, whether exchanging dialog that is on the humorous side or deadly serious, and CATHERINE WALKER is fine as Jones' confidante, Eleanor.

Time constraints make it impossible to ever do full justice to Austen's stories, but fans of the author should find this an enchanting enough version of the tale to satisfy Janite admirers, even if there are many omissions in the telling.

Very worthwhile, with high quality production values throughout.

Having suffered through Persuasion and Mansfield Park I was expecting very little from this production, particularly as the tongue-in-cheek humour in the novel is missed by so many readers. However, Andrew Davies pulled it off (again) mainly by introducing some over-the-top Gothic scenes into the narrative, which helped to set the tone, and padding out some of the minor characters - particularly Thorpe, who was truly repulsive. JJ Field was an amazingly attractive Tilney with his gentle mocking of Catherine and his twinkly eyes. Felicity Jones carried Catherine's wide-eyed innocence and trusting naivety off a treat and I really felt her distress at upsetting Tilney - a nice twist by Andrew Davies which would have made JA proud.

I've watched the film twice now and I have to say, I think this is a very lightweight version of Austen, There is nothing terribly bad about it, but nothing that great either. The one exception I would make is Carey Mulligan's Isabella Thorpe. She is very good as the manipulative and venal Isabella. But she also has a tinge of the pathetic about her. She seems to be a person who is determined to make the wrong decisions. As always in Davies adaptations, it is the 'villains' who are more interesting, but not even Andrew Davies and Mulligan can make John and Isabella Thorpe more than simply manipulative and venal. Felicity Jones is suitably innocent as Catherine, Fields is kind and understanding as Henry. The great Liam Cunningham is criminally wasted as Gen Tilney though. Everyone else is very nice and the costumes are lovely. Lismore Castle makes for a suitably large and intimidating Abbey and Dublin makes for a great 19th Century Bath.

In conclusion it's all very nice and pretty, (a kiss of death IMO) . The biggest gripe apart from the lack of any real tension and conflict in the plot would be Davies obligatory insertion of sexual misbehavior that is just so unlike Austen's novel. The Gothic elements introduced by Catherine's vivid dreams seem to have been heavily inspired by the 1987 version. I could be wrong about that, perhaps every adaptation has these boring dream sequences.

All in all, not my favourite Austen. You should never be bored by Austen.

Huzzah! - another adaptation: for Austen fans there can never be enough. Still…I gulped a little when I heard that ITV were doing a Jane Austen season. ITV tend to drastically abridge their period dramas, and they can end up slightly cheap-looking, losing integrity when contrasted with the more solid and sober (and timeless?) productions of the BBC.

Northanger Abbey was Austen's first proper novel, but her last to be published; very much a turn of the (19th) century novel, showing some of the roughness of that time, before ladies became entirely encased in the strict rules society saw fit to impose. It's fitting that a cheeky, confident and funny writer (Andrew Davies) gets to have a bit of fun with this one some 200 years later. In it, Catherine Morland, a young, naïve girl from a quiet village, gets her first taste of many things on a trip to Bath, and learns both life lessons and something about love through her contact with two very different families she meets there; the grasping, manipulative Thorpes and the thoughtful and sophisticated Tilneys.

The two leads, Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland, and J J Field as Henry Tilney, are beautifully cast. Felicity Jones' youth, pretty looks and inexperience served her character very well. Her 'modern' tone has been criticised, but whilst an older actress might have delivered the lines with greater accuracy, we'd have lost Jones' juvenile wonder and humour. She delivered (almost all) her lines nicely, and although at moments she looked almost simple, staring up blankly with her mouth open, in a way this was appropriate. Nothing in Catherine Morland's previous limited experience prepared her for the life of Bath or for a family like the Tilneys – she may well gape. I loved the dream sequences where her constant absorption in Gothic horrors spills over into her imagination: her reading was teaching her to look for horror everywhere.

J J Field was wonderful in the BBC's recent adaptation of Philip Pullman's excellent "The Ruby in the Smoke", and shows again that he can play the leading man with great charm and naturalistic ease - a long career in the making I think. Re-reading the book I'm struck by the affectionate details with which Austen made Henry Tilney lovable, such as his messy rooms and his keen sense of humour. I think Field goes a long way towards putting this on screen, despite shockingly ill-fitting clothes and a script very constrained for time, missing dialogue which would have drawn out his growing attachment to Catherine. Austen has Henry tell Catherine that she "is superior in good nature to all the world". In this version her youth and looks alone seem to be the reason for her appeal.

The minor characters were mostly well-played and well drawn; especially Eleanor Tilney, who brought great dignity to her role. Some concessions have certainly been made to an audience deemed incapable of reading subtlety or of tolerating lengthy or literary dialogue. But certain additions were really funny and delightful: Catherine rolling her eyes and curling her lip at Captain Tilney's rudeness; her little sister announcing, hand on hips and with a nice swing of her little head; "CATHY. Mama says will you bring Mr Tilney to the DRAWING room." Her withering glare at Henry when they are all seated, in awkward silence, is genius: go girl.

Adaptations don't need to be slavish. The BBC's rather lurid 1986 version took just as many liberties, and more than warranted a revisit. Overall I found this a delightful adaptation, delivered with verve and spirit, so well done ITV, please, more of this, less of the abridged and dumbed-down rubbish!