Rating: 
Summary: Austen Disappears
Review: I am amazed that anyone who claims to have read Ms. Austen's work and enjoyed it would enjoy this movie. I am not such a purist that I cannot enjoy artistic license in a movie but this one completely missed the story. It seems to me that the director and screen writer were more interested in being artistic than in telling the story of Fanny Price. The movie leaves out essential parts of the story that explain how Fanny comes to live at Mansfield Park. It leaves out the relationship between Fanny and her brother who serves in the military. The time the writer spent editing important parts of the story he used to create pieces that never existed. It is really too bad because the cast could have worked. As it is, this movie left me with a bad taste and I had to reach for Pride & Prejudice to get rid of it! If you want to know the story of Mansfield Park read the book. So far nothing on television or the big screen has gotten it right.
Rating: 
Summary: Who is Fanny Price?
Review: That was the question that came to me while watching this movie. This is a great departure from the story in Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park. If you are a big Austen fan I would stay away from this one. Although it was well acted, with beautiful scenery, there were too many elements from the novel which were missing in the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: I just couldn't care about the characters or the story
Review: O.K. I'll admit it. I've never read any Jane Austen. I did see a video of Sense and Sensibility though and loved it. I expected to love this too. I didn't. I wanted to identify with the young heroine, Fanny Price, a poor relation of a wealthy family living in Mansfield Park, who comes to live with them at the age of 10. Perhaps its because the young girl seems a little too modern for her background or that the production tries too hard to be politically correct, but I just couldn't care about the characters in spite of the twists and turns of the plot. From reading other reviews I understand that the screenwriter strayed far away from the original book. That might have been one of the problems, which I didn't realize at the time. The acting was good and so was the cinematography, but I can only give this video a lukewarm recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: Sort of Thing You'll Love, If You Love This Sort of Thing
Review: This is a MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR Chick Flick.I wanted to rent Vertical Limit but, NO, it was already freezing outside and my wife was not feeling 100 percent -- so, on the recommendation of the video store owner, I opted for Mansfield Park. It's one of those period pieces with costumes and sailing ships and beautiful British scenery, with a plot that had a lot to do with girls giggling together. All of these Emily Austen, or Jane Bronte or whatever shows seem to be film adaptations of books penned by young English women about young English women encountering inspirational experiences for books they are penning. Guys, if you want to make your girl happy, then obtain this film and watch it with her... and be attentive, cheerful and cordial while doing so. She will enjoy the experience, and will be quite pleased with you. If you can do so with no problems, have a liter of good wine handy, and sip it steadily throughout the movie. Wine won't convert this Major Chick Flick to Vertical Limit, but a sufficient quantity of it will make the Mansfield Park experience tolerable for a typical ordinary guy.
Rating:
Summary: True Austen style
Review: Taken without the book in consideration, this movie is quite good. Fanny in this version is a loveable character who you can feel for. The wit and undertones in this movie make it a delightful movie that can be watched over and over and still not completely gotten. However, it does stray from the book quite a bit. If you are looking for a strict version of the book, such as the P&P miniseries, this is not it. The movie does not even do what Emma and S&S do, not only does it skip scenes but it invents new plots, changes characters,and so on. Whether the movie is better for it, I cannot say. I do think though that Austen would not have had a problem with the movie. I feel that it is still in true Austen style.
Rating:
Summary: bad. bad. bad.
Review: Ok, maybe its just me, but I have this funny idea that when you write a screenplay based on a novel, I think that you ought to actually base the story on the novel! I will admit that there were some funny scenes in this version. Likewise, I'll admit that the novel is a little slow. However the few inventive scenes and the need to speed the story up for the screen don't excuse totally abandoning Jane Austen's novel. Its hard for me to judge, but maybe, standing on its own and apart from Jane Austen's excellent book, this might be a good movie. However, it clearly was not designed to stand on its own. It was designed to capitalize on Austen's popularity and reputation. As for my specific problems. After watching this version, I reread the book. There is exactly 1 explicit reference to slavery. Its not mentioned as a good thing or a bad thing. We're simply told that Fanny asked her uncle a question about the slave trade. That's it. From that, the movie extrapolates an entire subplot. Let me go on record now as saying that slavery was a horrible institution and a blight on the history of man. It was not, however, an important part of Jane Austen's novels. If you want to make an historical romance with a subplot condemning slavery, fine. But don't pretend its the same story as an excellent Jane Austen novel that was unconcerned with slavery. In the book, one of the defining elements of Fanny's character was her relationship with her brother William. In this version, No William. To be honest, this didn't bother me as much when I first watched the movie. I then reread the book (twice) and realized just how much his absence costs the story. Jane Austen's Fanny was a sweet, mild tempered girl with a strong sense of right and wrong. However, she was also terribly shy and completely unaware of her own worth. In this version, Fanny is a strong-willed, confident young woman unafraid to speak her mind. As a heroine in a movie thats fine. As Fanny Price, its terribly wrong. In fact, after reading Jane Austen's brief history of england(by a partial, prejuciced, and ignorant historian) [sound familiar-if not, early in this movie Fanny writes a book by the same title] I got the distinct impression that the purpose of this movie was not to portray Fanny. Instead, this story seems to be an attempt to take someone' idea of what Jane Austen was like and insert Jane, as a character, into one of her own stories. I've heard of worse ideas for a movie then inserting an author into her own story, but again, that is not how this movie was portrayed, nor was it ever explicitly stated. Many of the other characters also strayed from Jane Austen's form. Perhaps, most notable, Sir Thomas. Jane Austen's Sir Thomas, while somewhat cold and reserved, nonetheless was a kind man at heart who clearly cared for his children and Fanny. (And William as well.) In this version, he is none of that. I could go on, but I've probably said enough.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful movie
Review: One of my favorite movies. The pacing and gentle flow of the movie, as well as the wonderful score, makes it a sublime work of art which gives me the chills whenever I watch it.
Rating:
Summary: Ok...so don't read the book first ...
Review: I am in the process of reading the book after seeing the movie and I can honestly say I loved this movie. It's in the same spirit as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Although it maynot be true to the exact storyline, it definitely a wonderful movie to add to your collection if you like period pieces and well-defined characters.
Rating:
Summary: Very possibly the worst movie ever made
Review: This bit of tripe is not even fit to line a birdcage. The only reason I gave it one star is because there wasn't a selection for zero stars. OK, it surely does not stay true to the Jane Austen novel; in and of itself, that is all right, since most novels are not adapted exactly according to the book. This one, however, completely changes the dialog and personality of the main character (and other characters); it adds disturbing scenes of a sexual nature that are completely gratuitous; and the only relationship this movie has to the novel are the names of the characters, and possibly the setting. Alessandro Nivola, I admit, is the definitive Henry Crawford, but even he is not worth watching this movie for. Watch this "adaptation" at your own peril.
Rating:
Summary: This movie did what no other movie could
Review: It made me appreciate Fanny Price as Jane Austen wrote her! I suppose that paying eight bucks to watch this travesty could be considered my punishment for my lack of faith in Jane. Fanny Price (text or celluloid version) will never be my favorite heroine, but morphing Fanny the Drip into Fanny the Hoyden simply didn't work. This film didn't work on any level. It didn't work as an adaptation, it didn't work as a period piece, it certainly didn't work as a comedy, and how anyone could find it remotely romantic is utterly beyond me. Patricia Rozema takes the bare bones of Austen's story and sticks in bits of the juvenilia and some of the better lines from NORTHANGER ABBEY (from Edmund Bertram's mouth! Heaven forfend!) in order to present a cold, bare finger-wagging lecture on Evil White Men Who Conquered The World. Hey, Patty old girl: Fanny Price's big brother William, the Royal Navy officer, was one of those evil white men. If Jane Austen meant to make him look bad, I'll eat my Oxford Editions with a side of tripe. Oh, wait, he was left out of the movie! My bad! However, if you're willing to sit through a movie (or shell out good money for it) solely for the presence of seriously hot men (hey, I've done it), I have two words for you: Alessandro Nivola. He WAS Henry Crawford, and for me was the sole redeeming virtue of the film. What a waste of a perfectly good man in a perfectly dreadful film. Oh, and to those reviewers who have flared their nostrils about "Jane Austen purists" who don't like the film: when the film is marketed as "Jane Austen's Mansfield Park," and touted as "Jane Austen's Favorite Novel," I don't think it is too much to expect "Jane Austen's Fans" to demand, if not fidelity to the original, at least that Jane Austen's vision not be thrown aside for a director's personal agenda. The High Priestess has spoken.
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