Rating: 
Summary: Why is it called Mansfield Park?
Review: I read the Jane Austen "Mansfield Park" a couple of years ago, and soon after, rented the most recent movie version. I have to say- I would've liked the film 100 times more if I hadn't read the book. Alessandro Nivola is charming as Henry Crawford. Frances McDormand is entirely lovable as Fanny Price. But if you're looking for a film solely based on that Austen you read, turn around and find another version-THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. I think the real issue was that the people who made this film didn't like the book quite enough. If they had liked it more, they might not have decided to give the characters lines they'd never spoken. Jane Austen is/was a fabulous writer, terribly witty, etc. I could understand thinking Fanny is a tiny bit dull-but if you don't like her-leave her as she is and try your hand at something more Elizabeth Bennet-ish; just don't take Austen's work (her own "child") and bend it to your will. At least, that's what I'd say to the writer. There. Done ranting.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Jane Austen's Fanny Price
Review: While Frances O'Connor's Fanny Price is not Jane Austen's Fanny Price, she is a delighful girl none the less. Actually, the film Fanny Price is much more likeable than Austen's character, who never could have carried a movie on her own, being too pious and self-effacing, and in my opinion, downright dull. "Mansfield Park" is obviously not my favorite Austen! However, the book deserved better than the socio-political tract that the director was determined to make it into, with historcially inaccurate references to slavery, and a hint of lesbianism. The book was set at a time in British history where the slave trade had been outlawed for several years, and so it would have been impossible for Fanny to have seen a slave ship discharging slaves off of the coast of England. There was nothing in "Mansfield Park", the book, to suggest in any way that Mary Crawford was bisexual, although I can accept a defense that the director was trying to portray her as an amoral woman who would try to seduce anyone just to see if she could do it.To my way of thinking, the best part of the movie came when Fanny was ordered to return to her birth family by her uncle (a deliciously creepy turn by Harold Pinter). After living in the comparative luxury of Mansfield Park since she was a young girl, O'Connor's Fanny is repulsed by the squalid conditions she finds at her old home. Her father (who seems to take a more than slightly unfatherly interest in his lovely daughter)is a drunkard, and her mother is harried and slovenly. It was a stroke of brillance on the part of the director to have the same actress portray Fanny's mother and aunt, who were, after all, sisters. Even though the movie is not Jane Austen, and the politics of the director are hardly subtle, I still think the movie is worth viewing, primarily for the performances of O'Connor and Pinter. I think if you just try to forget that it is an adaptation of a classic work of English literature you will find the movie to be much more enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: IT IS A MOVIE - AN ADAPTATION of a book
Review: I never read the book but an adaptation is something that is changed so as to become suitable to a new or special application or situation. I never heard of it except that I enjoy Jane Austen books/movies and looked into other books she wrote etc. I enjoyed the movie. I agree some parts in the movie were flung on you and were too graphic to be included. The main character was witty, intelligent, yet fun and endearing. It was enjoyable to see the story of true friendship unfold and how the main characters feelings finally are acknowledged. I love the language and overall thought it was a great movie. Good ending but it does leave you wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing to do with the novel MP
Review: If the title of this movie hadn't been Mansfield Park, I'd have found this a cute movie and I would have enjoyed the spirited, rebellious, witty heroine who quoted some of the slyest Jane Austen from her minor works and letters. But I expected the novel, and couldn't overcome the bait-and-switch betrayal in order to enjoy this for what it is, a sweet movie based on somebody's idea of Jane Austen's personality in a comedy of manners with some spicy interactions. The sets are lush, the wardrobe lovely, and the caste is brilliant. But it misses the actual Mansfield Park by a mile. If you enjoy the kind of book that features Jane Austen as a detective, etc. this may be the movie for you. I hate that kind of liberty and always wish they'd changed the name. I confess I can't abide the original novel's Fanny Price--a shy, mingy, diffident little whimp who falls in love with stuffy Edmund out of gratitude for his gentle attention and who recoils in horror at anything vaguely naughty. The movie heroine is a writer--witty, fun, even gleeful, certainly not Fanny Price. It would be nearly impossible to adapt the real MP to a modern movie format. A faithful version of the novel would be very dull, maybe inferior to this movie, I but still can't forgive the use of the title.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Jane Austen's Book
Review: The movie itself is quite entertaining in modern standards, but it is hardly based on Jane Austen's book. Unlike Austen's main character, Fanny is a bold, loud, playful girl, flirting in the hallways of her uncle's home. Her uncle is a mean-spirited and harsh man, almost never like Austen's Sir Thomas. The other characters are no more like the book in character or looks. The dialogues are modified to sound modern. There is undue physical contact between Fanny and Mr. Crawford and, worse yet, between Fanny and Edmund. A key character is eliminated, Fanny's brother William, who is her only joy in life outside of her uncle's home. He is replaced by a sister, who is attached to Fanny too early in the film. The characters, if separated completely from the book, are in themselves charming. The movie would have been a nice American piece of drama had they called it another name. As it stands, it does great injustice to Jane Austen genius.
Rating:
Summary: If Negative Stars Were An Option . . .
Review: Another film in the grand tradition of directors who think they can improve on great authors. This film is so unlike Jane Austen's beautiful novel in all its essentials as to be unrecognizable. Austen's Fanny Price, it has been said, is a heroine who succeeds because of her refusal to DO anything (including budge). Here, she is turned into a feminist fireball. Worse and worse . . . the director actually has her accept the scoundrel's proposal of marriage, something Austen's immobile and faithful Fanny would never do. The director throws in all kinds of peripheral non-necessities, distracts from the story as much as possible, and destroys all possible subtlety in the process. Just goes to show you . . . if you have a story to tell, don't try and pass it off as a great author's just to gain legitimacy. Especially if your story is worth a lot less than the original. Avoid this movie; read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Mansfield Park
Review: Ok, even though this movie doesn't exactly stay true to the book, it's still a wonderful movie! so don't listen to all of the negative revews, just watch it, not as a movie based on a book, but as a movie in it's own right, and judge for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but not what Jane Austen wrote
Review: Having read a number of these reviews on Mansfield Park (movie), they all seem to focus on the changes in Fanny, the inclusion of anti-slavery themes. But little has been said about the changes done to the Crawfords. The movie makes them both out to be a plotting devious pair, far beyond anything that could be passed off as being Fanny's view of them. The movie is definitely not Mansfield Park as written by Jane Austen. But it is still entertaining, so long as you are prepared for the excessive devations from Austen.
Rating:
Summary: Worth seeing if you are an Austen fan, but disappointing.
Review: As a longtime fan of Jane Austen I was glad to finally see a movie version of one of my favourite books. However, I was very disappointed with the way Fanny was portrayed. Not that the acting was poor but the script did not depict the characters as I recall them.
If you watch this without reading the book you will come away with a somewhat spiced-up version of the story, and to be honest, considering the type of person that this film is likely to attract (i.e. an Austen fan), I don't think the spice was at all necessary; but then it's never pleasant to see something you like changed!
Rating:
Summary: Should be rated "R"
Review: A disappointing treatment of a great book. One of the main themes of the movie is that slavery is bad and should be outlawed. ... DVD includes graphic drawings, being thrust without warning on viewer, of women being [violated]. Also, in one scene, the main character walks in on a couple engaged in intimate relations, again, the viewer doesn't have time or warning to turn away. The DVD should have been rated "R". The images border on being [in poor taste]. Again, very disappointing compared to other Jane Austen movies.
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