Rating: 
Summary: INDESCRIBABLE!
Review: In many reviews I read about this film, the reviewers commented on or were irate over the extreme difference between it and Austen's original story. I have not read Jane's version, though, so I am describing my reaction to the film itself, entirely basing my love for it on the story as it is portrayed on the screen. And what a love it is that I have for that story. Besides its astonishing visual and auditory beauty, including the actors and actresses, the stunningly artistic cinamatography, the costumes, and the music there is an undercurrent of a senseless beauty throughout the tale. Fanny Price's character is amazing. She has this natural morality that is so refreshing. She is very real, she is both strong and vulnerable. She has the capacity to hurt and to be hurt, and both of these aspects are shared in the movie. Frances O'Connor's acting has a rare quality of honesty to it- a complete devotion to her character and her situation. I think that is what makes the piece what it is. It is not just candy for the senses. It is a feast of truth, which, though beautiful, is never sacrificed for beauty's sake. This is a film that I cannot do justice to through explaining. All I can say is it should not be overlooked, even by diehard Jane Austen fans, for it is a masterpiece by itself. It is that strong. Just let it work its magic and a miracle will happen.
Rating: 
Summary: Austen rolling in her grave!
Review: How absurd that modern filmmakers feel that the public could not possibly understand the classics without their help. Austen is the ONLY classic author whose entire collection is still in full circulation - an indication that generations later, the audience still "gets it". Hollywood has endlessly held the notion that they have greater artistic and creative powers in their peabrains than the authors whose books have passed through millions of hands for decades.This version of Mansfield Park is, for the time, the most bloodstirring adaptation in existence - due to the contraversial retelling. In my opinion, the only consistencies are the names and bits and pieces of the storylines. Frances O'Connor gives an amazing performance considering the fact that she has nothing to work with - she is the gem and only point that makes the film worth watching. However, Fanny is no longer Fanny at all - the director has completely reinvented her. The most appalling sequence was the one in which Fanny accepts Henry's proposal. The chances of this happening in the novel are so absolutely impossible that I thought that this was some sort of dream sequence. In the novel, Fanny (whom the director actually shows getting smashed at a party given to her by the Bertrams - imagine Lizzie Bennet, Emma, or any of her other noble creatures portrayed in this manner) knows intuitively from the beginning that Henry shows enormous lack of character and NEVER for a moment considers accepting any of his attentions. The fact that she does so in the film is an enormous flaw and shows the director's complete misunderstanding of Austen's heroine. Also, the pivotal chapters in Mansfield surround the play and through it, our players true characters are revealed(Austen's own midsummer night if you will). Fanny is the innocent one - set apart during this whole section of the book by her wisdom and naivete. I was shocked when the film skimmed it for only a moment. The "sketch book scene" was, without a doubt, too great a liberty to take with the work of a classic author, as is the entire storyline that corresponded with it. I'm sure we all understand the vulgarity of slavery without needing to see it graphically displayed in a format that Austen herself would refuse to watch. Austen understood something the director of this film does not: subtlety. Finally, the most distressing scene to me was the moment after Henry and Mariah are discovered together. Rather than seeing our leading man and lady in a state of anger over what they've discovered, we see Fanny and Edmund aroused by the moment, grasping for each other and then ashamed by their own reaction. HELLLO! What is that? And for anyone that didn't catch the sexual innuendo in the scene where Mary is helping Fanny out of her wet clothes - I have to ask what planet they're from. There was no Edmund standing nearby to arouse in that scene. Oh, and I almost forgot, the director adds such a nice touch to the character of Fanny's father by making him a pervert as well - clutching at his daughters in a way that makes your stomach turn. Without a doubt, this film lacks Jane Austen's wit and wisdom. It disgusts me that it is considered some sort of tribute to her. Mansfield Park is considered by many to be Austen's greatest work - grand and subtle. Fanny's complex character is lost here, as well as everything that Austen was trying to say through her. This film has reduced this masterpiece to nothing more than the poor story of an unfortunate girl surrounded by perverts. But are we really shocked? Hollywood's idea to make anything better is - just add sex. From now on, I think I'll stick with the BBC.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for Austen purists
Review: This movie SEEMS to be Mansfield Park. The characters have all the right names, the action has a superficial resemblance to that of the novel, but there all similarities end! This is a very modern Mansfield Park, regardless of the early 19th century setting. Viewers are caught up in a tale of the evils of slavery and the value of women's scholarship. Not exactly the focus of the novel! There are some redeeming features. The costuming is beautiful; Mr. Rushworth, Julia, and Maria are gratifyingly self-absorbed and absurd; the differences between the Price and Bertram households are well-drawn. Austen fans will enjoy quotes from Fanny's writing: they are taken from the early stories of Austen herself. However, the makers of this movie have made Fanny Price a very different sort of creature from the novel. Blooming and beautiful, sometimes sharp-tongued, she has little in common with the character in the novel. The director has chosen to introduce elements not present in the novel. Sir Thomas, for example, due to a family business in trading slaves (never mentioned in the original), has gone from a dignified, rather stuffy but honorable man in the novel, to a degraded and rather disturbing man in the film. In the movie, he looks Fanny up and down as if she is a slave for sale, and arranges the famous ball of the novel as a way of "selling" her in marriage. And having brought in the anti-slavery subplot, the director simply dismisses it at the end, saying "Sir Thomas eventually gave up his interests in Antigua." Sharply lacking is any of the satiric eye Austen cast on society. We are given the melodrama, but little of Austen's sharp wit. Very few of Aunt Norris' snobby ways have made it into the movie; the great scenes involving the "improvements" at Sotherton are missing. Fanny's brother William is missing entirely. Why bother to even mention this is based on an Austen novel? There is little enough resemblance.
Rating: 
Summary: Mansfield Park meets Alice in Wonderland
Review: This is not really an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, it's more along the lines of fan fiction; it has most of the original characters, but they've been down the rabbit hole, eaten a few mushrooms, and come out all bent out of their original shapes. Fanny Price has been changed the most, and some will say that's a good thing. In the novel, she's withdrawn and self-effacing, as you would expect, given her situation. Having been separated from her family as a child, taken in by rich relatives as a charity case, and reminded daily of her inferiority by her mean-spirited Aunt and snooty female cousins, would she really have grown up to be the self-confident, assertive young woman we see in this adaptation? I don't think it's very likely, and neither did Jane Austen. Nevertheless, the new, "improved" Fanny plays better to a modern audience, so that's who we've got as our heroine -- but it wreaks havoc with the plot, doesn't it? Would this Fanny be truly happy with the introspective, serious Edmund? She almost seems a better match for the fractious Henry Crawford. Not only the characters have changed; there's an addition to the plot as well. The moral issue of slavery, not even addressed in the novel, is tossed in, seemingly on a whim. I could almost give credit to the director for trying something daring and thought-provoking, if only it had been handled with a little more finesse, but this wasn't. What's worse, the entire issue was left unresolved. It felt as if the director merely added the slavery sub-plot to bring some excitement to an otherwise sedate story, then abandoned it. I thought it was tacky, and couldn't see any real added value (aside from those lovely sketches - blechh). In the end, I sort of enjoyed this movie... but only AFTER I'd given up comparing it to the book. Important events seemed rushed, which you'd expect with only 2 hours to get things wrapped up, but the main points were touched on, and it all works out pretty much the same. This is Mansfield Park as seen through Patricia Rozema's looking glass, and it's only a dim, wavy reflection of the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: A.A.H. from Iowa- "Mansfield Park"
Review: This is worth seeing if only for the excellent performances of Frances O'Connor and Justine Waddell, although she was in it very little. As for the story its self, and its loyalty to the book, judge for yourself. I also highly recommend "Bedazzled", which pertains to Frances, and the English miniseries "Wives and Daughters", if you wish to see Justine at her best.
Rating: 
Summary: This Ain't Your Grandma's Austen
Review: Austen purists will undoubtedly tsk-tsk away at Patricia Rozema's adaptation of this classic. Well, let them. It may not be exactly what Austen wrote, but it is still a very worthwhile film. The somewhat heavy-handed treatment of slavery and frank portrayal of sexuality and infidelity may make some Austenites squirm, as these issues were really only hinted at in the novel. In Austen's time, a mere mention that a family was involved in business in Bristol or had perplexing interests in Antigua was enough to indicate their involvement in the slave trade. But modern audiences aren't always as acute to subtleties such as this. Thus, Rozema's film practically hits you over the head with it, making sure you understand just how the Bertram family gets their money. Then there's the issue of sex. Miss Austen would never have been published had she revealed any sexual details, and Austen film adaptations have followed suit, rarely showing more than a chaste kiss. Although the heroine's (Fanny Price) love affair remains pure, Rozema makes sure that the audience understands the illicit affair between Maria Bertram and Henry Crawford by having Fanny walk in on them in the act. No, it's not the way Austen wrote it, but we aren't living in Austen's time. And the film is not a complete perversion of the original work. The formal diction and manners remain the same; the characters are, for the most part, very true to the novel, and the underlying themes still come through strongly. This is what matters. Furthermore, the acting is superior. Frances O'Connor gives Fanny Price a much sharper tongue than the character in the novel, but she still portrays Fanny's extreme self-consciousness, honesty, and unworldliness. Jonny Lee Miller's Edward Bertram is not as dashing as a Mr. Darcy, but neither is the character. His Edward is honorable, sweet, shy, and discerning, and a perfect match for O'Connor's modest Fanny. Lindsay Duncan is excellent in the dual roles of the wealthy opium-addict Lady Bertram and her poverty-stricken sister Mrs. Price, showing two extremes of female fate in Austen's time. What this film shows is that Austen still can be adapted for a modern audience. It attests to Austen's sustainability as a novelist (as if that was a point necessary to argue), that the story can be subjected to the indelicacies of a contemporary film and still make an impact with its themes and characters.
Rating:
Summary: Appealing
Review: I have yet to read the book this movie is based on, so without that to compare the movie too, all I can say is that I enjoyed the movie for what it was... an appealing portrayal of the snotty upper class lording their wealth and privileges over the lower class even while opening their home too them. I enjoyed this movie because it did not hide the ugliness of class prejudice and it had the courage to show that love can win in the end. Very charming movie with much talent and beautiful scenery. Worth watching more than once.
Rating:
Summary: Charming!!!
Review: This was one of the best adaptations ever for a Jane Austen novel! This movie is much different than the book, but still follows the same storyline and character relationships. The main character, Fanny Price is much different than the book. In the book she is quiet, polite, and shy. In the movie she is strong, independent, and spiritied. I personally think that the movie's personality for Fanny fits her better. This movie is charming and elegant and still managed to throw in tons of humor! I love it when a movie has the ability to do that! This movie boasts a strong cast of young actors before they were well known including Frances O' Connor (Artificial Inteliigence), Alessandro Nivola (Jurassic Park III), and Jonny Lee Miller (Dracula 2000). There are many other enjoyable young stars in this movie that bring heat to the screen. Excellent!
Rating:
Summary: austen purists- get off your high horse!
Review: geez louise! it says right there in the beginning of the movie "inspired by jane austen's novel, letters, and other writings." ms.austen should be flattered that ms. rozema, the writer/director has been able to film what i believe to be the most nuanced and "unfilmable" of all of austen's novels. yes, i'm an austen fan, and no- i didn't find anything wrong with this film. bottom line- do you like good acting & tons of romance? then this is the movie for you! the DVD comes with lots of fun extra as well, including ms. rozema's highly enlightening commentary. great movie!
Rating:
Summary: charming and beautiful
Review: This is a great movie. If you're an Austen purist, then perhaps it's not for you, but i found it really delightful. The characters have more depth and appeal than i found in Austen's somewhat dry, though interesting novel. Many scenes are strikingly beautiful. Watch this movie
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