Rating: 
Summary: Read the book instead
Review: This movie was such a dissapointment- so many geat aspects of the book were changed or left out. Perhaps this is because they tried to squish such a wonderful and twisting plot into two hours. I think If I hadn't read the book I wouldn't have understood the movie, it jumps to quickly from scence to scene.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable!
Review: Don't listen to all the bashers of this film who criticize it because it isn't 100% accurate to the book. This is an elitist view from a bunch of purists who don't have a grasp of what film making is supposed to be about. In the beggining titles the movie blatantly states that the movie is based on the book "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen as well as her own life. Mansfield Park is a story about a young girl Fanny Price who goes to live with her rich relatives. But instead of being accepted by her relatives as one of their own. She is mostly used as domestic help especially by her Aunt Norris (a character which JK Rowling borrowed in Harry Potter)whose only esteem in the entire movie comes from bullying poor Fanny. The only person who is kind to Fanny is her cousin Edmund. Fanny grows actually to fall in love with Edmond but can do nothing about it because they are out of each others social circle. During the course of the movie a diletante brother and sister moves into the neighborhood and have wide spread reprocussions on Fanny and Edmond. There is also a bit of social commentary on slavery and how the family supports iself. Tom's drawing of the treatment of the slaves are horrifying, but true to form. African slaves who were brought to the Americas were treated worse than animals, and it is remarkable how this has not been addressed yet. I really enjoyed this movie very much. Not so much from the story itself but from the solid acting and the feelings that are shown. I especially loved Francis O'Connor (Fanny) and Alexandro Nivola (Henry) I think that they had very strong chemistry and played well to each other. The only problem I had was tha the ending was way too contrived, The makers seemed to give Henry a blatant flaw simply to throw Fanny and Edmond together. If are looking for a dissertation on Mansfield Park then perhaps this movie is not for you. You might do much better taking an English Litterature class. But on the other hand if you are looking for a good costume Drama with solid acting, then don't miss Mansfield Park.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch Sense and Sensibility instead
Review: It looked promising when it started. A little done-up, but promising. I was very curious to see how they would pull it off, considering when I read Mansfield Park it seemed to me to be the novel of Austen's least likely to become a movie. Silly me, the thought didn't even occur to me that they would completely change the characters and theme of the book. I could understand why they did what they did, making Fanny trendier and so ahead of her time (many people probably tricked themselves into thinking this was how she was really written originally) and some of the changes would have even worked, such as delicately omitting the fact that Fanny and Edmund are cousins (I can already hear the 'ewww!'s) and making Fanny's sister her distant beloved sibling instead of her brother. But the whole 'slavery is so bad' thing was the cherry on top. Of course it was terrible, but it was so obviously not a major aspect of the book and personally I don't think Fanny would have been terribly bothered by it. The thought of the sketches she found still makes me shake my head and sigh, and don't get me started on Mr. Crawford and Maria in bed...I almost turned it off. I have to go back to what I always say: If only Emma Thompson would write all of Austen's novels! Sense and Sensibility was just a bunch of people in drawing rooms and it was touching, romantic, funny and completely beautiful. It is the only good Austen film I've seen yet that did so well exactly what Austen is famous for doing so well: making one really care about the small problems of a few small people. I guess the makers of Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and so many others just don't get that.
Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen's favorite, slaughtered
Review: This story was said by Jane Austen to be her favorite. How distressed she would be to see it portrayed this way. Jane's point was slandered as it tried to drive home a more modern, "politically correct" viewpoint. The main characters, Fanny Price and her cousin, Edmund, are pious and "good", this is stressed throughout the book as being virtuous. In this version, the characters are seen as out of touch, and seem to conform before they reach their happy ending. This defeats the purpose of the story, which is that virtue "wins". Also, the scene where Fanny finds Tom's drawings of his father forcing a slave woman to have oral sex, is highly distracting, disturbing and unnecessary. It doesn't fit with the story, or support the story's moral theme.
The 1983 BBC version with Sylvestra Le Touzel and Nicholas Farrell as Fanny and Edmund is much more in keeping with the original tone of Jane's story. It's also more "family friendly"-You won't have to have your children leave the room to watch it as you do this version.
Rating: 
Summary: Mansfield Starkers
Review: They say the great thing about Shakespeare's work is that it is so open to interpretation. Every director can bring his or her fresh eyes to a play and make it new. Even so, I think we are obliged to stay true to the basic tennents of the text. Are the works of Jane Austen as open to interpretation? Maybe, but I doubt it; Certainly not if MANSFIELD PARK is anything to go by. MANSFIELD was always my favourite of Austen's six novels. Many modern critics, while not denying its basic greatness, have problems with the book. Many find FANNY PRICE unlikeable, many find her judgemental, and feel that her Stoic, Augustan approach is hard to relate to. Stand-by, do nothing, and eventually he'll see the error of his ways and come to love you. Not very modern, is it? OK, so if you don't like the main character, if you don't like what she has to say, then what do you do? Look for other aspects of the story you can relate to. In recent years some critics have chosen to see MANSFIELD PARK in Post-Imperial terms, as a critique of Slavery. After all, the family's wealth is based on plantations in Antiga, which were run by slaves. Is that what the book's about? Is it? I don't know. I think the evidence is a little slim, but who am I to deny the possibility? Maybe it plays a part in the subtext of the novel. So, I'm a modern script-writer who doesn't like the novel, it's pre-occupations or even Fanny Price. What do I do? I completely re-write the story to take a possible minor sub-text (slavery) and turn it in to the driving narrative force. I then take smart as a whippet, stubborn yet passive Fanny and turn her into a ballsy version of Bridget Jones. With an attitude. I then string together a couple of scenes from the book with a few invented bridging scenes to advance the romance. Et Voila! I have a completely different story! I don't know what this film is, but it isn't Mansfield Park. Enjoy it on its own terms, but don't ever get the idea that your watching Austen on the screen. But, jeeze. I think that if you're going to adapt a novel for the screen, you ought to at least like the source material; Otherwise, what's the point? If you don't like the main character, you shouldn't be able to completely re-invent her. Or if you do, you should have the decency to be a little ashamed.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely film!
Review: This was a charming movie! I was enchanted! Some of it was a wee bit strange but....... It was almost like I was Fanny. I couldn't stand evil Mary Crawford and Mr. Crawford what a MORON!
I love this movie and cannot understand why anyone would not.
Rating:
Summary: Totally unfaithful to the book
Review: This movie is so disappointing to anyone who has read and loved Jane Austen's books. Instead of reading this book, the author probably took a poor synopsis and wrote their own story, it is so far from Jane Austen's creation. The character of Fanny is totally rewritten and anachronistic. Don't watch it if you are at all a lover of Jane Austen's books.
Rating:
Summary: A very good movie
Review: I like it a lot, you should check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, Terrible, Terrible
Review: Unfortunately, this version of Mansfield Park hardly resembles Jane Austen's book, both in tone and in content. The issue of slavery was never addressed in the book and distracts from the storyline of the poor relation (Fanny) living with wealthy and mostly unkind relatives, with the exception of Edmund. Fanny's morality toward slavery is overpowering to the central theme and horribly overdone. Especially the scene where she views the upsetting drawings by the eldest brother depicting the anguish of slaves. Since when was the brother an artist?? Lame, Lame, Lame... Mansfield Park is not one of my favorite of Austen's novels and I was hoping that the screenplay might take a view that I had not divined from the book..It DOES, but one that is wholly an invention of the screenwriter. Sadly, it is not even a rich, costume film, which we have come to expect from these period pieces. Dont waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Mansfield Park...kind of.
Review: Don't get me wrong... I love Jane Austen. I have all her books and several theatrical adaptations, and although I am all for faithful adaptations (for Jane Austen need not be improved upon, as is exhibited in the A&E/BBC version of Pride and Prejudice), I did thoroughly enjoy this movie. The story, though shockingly unfaithful to the actual book, was not only written from the perspective of Jane Austen's book, but also from her letters and journals (which is made clear at the very beginning of the movie). If you are totally closeminded and cannot see the beauty in a well-made film, then I do not suggest this movie, but if you are open to new interpretations (even if they are a little modern and not quite faithful) I recommend this movie highly. It is not a matter of being a "true Jane Austen fan," but more about taking the movie for what it really is - an attempt to entertain - and I will end with a tantilizing quote from Fanny Price, "Remember, run mad as often as you like, but do not faint."
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