Rating: Summary: Great romance, beautifully filmed Review: This movie is really good. I understand people being unsatisfied if they have read the novel, (which I have not), but it is so well done as a movie on its own, that I would buy it and recommend it any day to a girl with a love for a good romance & appreciation for Jane Austen style movies.Loved the filming... beautiful shots, lovely acting, You'll appreciate the cinematography for sure. Overall, one of the best romances I've seen in my life.
Rating: Summary: The feel of this movie grabs you... Review: Though I haven't read that book and do not have the qualms the other commenters here have in regards to the accuracy, when I saw this movie I was floored. The acting is excellent, and the filming breath-taking. The cinematography is beautiful. The way a simple expression of Fanny Price is captured pulls you into all the emotions she's feeling in her position as a poor cousin in her wealthy uncle's family's house. I thought it was a great movie... definitely a great movie to own and watch multiple times... if you like a good romance with substance to the story. I am such a fan... one of my favourite romance movies. Goes down in my top 10.
Rating: Summary: Movie of merit Review: This movie has mystery, intrigue, and sensuality. It is Austenesque in the way so many other so-called Jane Austen movies are - that is, somewhat true to the story but made with a movie maker's interpretive eye. I liked the spunky main character, I liked the rich lighting and use of color, and I found the pace of the story moved along very nicely. Some complain it isn't true to the book - so what? How many movies loosely based on classics really are? Further, who says they always should be? The only question that matters is: Were you entertained? I certainly was.
Rating: Summary: True to the spirit(if perhaps not the plotpoints) of Austen! Review: I have to take exception to the reviews that say this movie somehow isn't "faithful" to either Jane Austen or the novel. I think in many ways it is. A movie SHOULD attempt to interpret a novel, not just offer moving pictures to go along with the texts. And the interpretation of this particular Jane Austen film is very much in the spirit of Austen herself.
I've read the novel(actually not one of my favorites either). And this film refuses to go for the easy target that we modern folks want these period pieces to do so often-envision this very idealistic time period that's full of rolling hills and romantic courtships. It really gets down to the gritty reality of a woman's status during this time period and how the family and the relationships within this unit are run like a corporation alot of the times.
Understanding how the social context affects how these various relationships in Austen novels interact in various ways is key to understanding Austen and her keen eye for social commentary. This director picked up on that importance, and made one of the best Austen film treatments to date as a result. She gets Austen's spirit, not just her plotpoints.
Rating: Summary: Manfield Park Review: After much anticipation I bought the dvd only to be extremely disappointed by the direction and total lack of continuity. Unlike the book, the movie jumped from one scene to another without going into any real depth of human thoughts and emotions as expressed by Austin. Fair enough the book is not as dynamic as Pride and Prejudice but in its own righs it is a good story with many subjects as subtext. Unfortunately the movie makers failed to focus on any of those. It also seemed like they changed the story line and decided to take some parts out altogether. There was no mention of Fanny's much loved brother to whom she writes while at Manafield Park. Mrs Norris being one of the book's main characters was hardly part of the movie (an injustice to one of Austin's well written if not most liked characters). Fanny in the book is a church mouse with unexpressed opinions whereas in the movie she is shown to be expressing herself without any hesitations and Edmund's influential skills have been missed out taking the life and soul out of his character. Crawfords seem to appear out of thin air in the movie without any mention of the Grants. It looks like that the director was in a real rush to get the jist of the movie across. Some of the crucial scenes of attachment between Edmund and Mary have been avoided and it seems like they formed an attachment overnight for each other and seem can be said about Henry's affections towards Fanny.
All in all Austin fans would be disappointed by this highly "fast pace" version of Mansfield Park.
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