Rating: 
Summary: Worst Jane Austen Movie Adaptation
Review: This is the worst Jane Austen movie adaptation I've seen thus far, with the exception of the 80s Northanger Abbey adaptation. The 80s version of Mansfield Park is surpasses this by far and stays very true to Jane Austen's brilliant novel (as all her novels are). I was greatly disappointed with the way Miramax completely butchered this story. I found some parts of the film to be truly frightening. I advise any Jane Austen fan to stay clear of this horrific adaptation! Go watch A&E's Pride and Prejudice instead of wasting your time on this...
Rating:
Summary: Jane Austen becomes Jane Doe.
Review: I.e., Missing In Action. Unidentified. Unrecognizable. Patricia Rozema's *Mansfield Park* is "based" on Austen's novel of the same name. It's also "based" on her letters, diaries, and so forth. I've put the word "based" in quotation marks because you need to understand that it's LOOSELY based on its sources. (Looser than one of Orson Welles's tent-sized suits on Kate Moss's body.) Let it be said that Austen, like any great writer, would be mortified by this conflation of herself with her own fictional character, Fanny Price. And she would be furious by director Rozema's infusion of her own easy, 21st-century feminism into Fanny. Rozema's easy, 21st-century feminism belongs neither in Fanny or in Jane Austen, an author who can hardly be considered "feminist", as we define that term. I grant that the cumulative portrait of Austen's novels yields itself to a feminist interpretation: the books paint a troubling portrait of Regency England, wherein a woman's worth is more or less defined by the man she's married to (or CAN marry). But isn't that easy for us to say, 2 centuries hence? What do our social values have to do with the novel *Mansfield Park*? Nothing. Only aesthetic values count. And on that score, Rozema fails spectacularly, as well: her insistence on putting in a sex scene between the rake Henry Crawford and the unfortunate Mrs. Rushworth is designed to titillate. And her transformation of the stiff but kindly patriarch Sir Thomas into a morally bankrupt slave trader (who, it's also revealed in a flashy scene involving a sketchbook, enjoys raping and impaling his slaves), is designed for the sole purpose of making the queasy liberals in the audience murmur to themselves: "We've Come a Long Way, Baby." (And it nullifies playwright Harold Pinter's performance, hitherto the best in the movie.) The grossness of the first example and the self-righteousness of the second example don't belong in an adaptation of Austen, in whose novels bedrooms are never mentioned and society's assumptions are never questioned. Who the hell does Patricia Rozema think she is? How dare she presume to "correct" Jane Austen! She needs to get her cotton-picking (pun intended) fingers out of the classics by her betters and come up with her own politically correct story. So what's the good news? Well, as I skimmed all the reviews of this film here at Amazon, I was gratified to see that many viewers weren't suckered by this movie. (Lots of 1-stars.) They actually would have preferred an interpretation that was at least faithful in spirit, if not in every narrative detail. In the meantime, THIS interpretation is disgraceful.
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Summary: Why pretend it's Austen?
Review: Being a very big fan of Jane Austen, I find this loose adaptation an abomination and an abortion. But then, I have never understood why people will pretend to do a movie of a book only to rewrite the book as something else. Why not just do an original movie?Since I know the book well, I could not really tell what the video would be like for someone unfamiliar with the story. But it seemed to me that it must seem quite incoherent. The Price character is certainly incoherent - one minute docile, the next impertinent, one minute cynical and the next ready with a conservative moralism. She is cold and cruel enough to sneer at her aunt's drug use, and to her younger sister (can you imagine such behavior in an Austen heroine!!!), and then we are to believe her the most virtuous and kind and of the tenderest conscience. Unsatisfied with the staunch, consistent, quiet, gallant and unsensational courage of Austen's character, these folks had to make her cutely coy and clever and for good measure (in case anybody might get bored with English country manners I guess) had to throw in a subtheme of the evils of slavery. Seldom have I seen so silly and useless a scene as the one where Fanny suddenly finds on her cousin's sickbed (where did it come from?) a large sketchbook full of scenes of slaves (her uncle's one presumes) being tortured and raped - by her uncle, amongst others. And poor Cousin Tom, is transformed sentimentally into a gallant idealist emotionally crippled by his discovery of the source of Dad's evilly gained riches. Oh please. Austen was brilliant, this is rubbish. Can people not tell, and refrain from trashing her? Does the aunt have to be made an opium addict? Yes, people abused it back then, just like people had slaves in the West Indies back then, but can't we do without drug abuse and gross violence for a couple of hours? Get the BBC video starring Sylvestra Le Touzel, it is immeasureably better. I found her characterization of Fanny Price faithful and yet never insipid, as her rather prudish moralizings risk seeming to people today. Nobody has yet made Edmund interesting, but oh well, Lady Bertram is lots of fun, a real Austen eccentric of selfishness.
Rating:
Summary: Not like the book at all.
Review: I have read this book and from that I think the movie was poorly scripted and poorly cast. The main character was not like the one in the book. Also, there were elements, like the slavery issue, that may have been important at the time, but were not in the book explicitly. There were too many elements apart from the book and this DID NOT lead to a good movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Original... But a Charming Adaptation
Review: While Mansfield Park is a loose adaptation of the original book, it should be acknowledged that it is a moving film made with much care and love for the story. Movies made from books are always an interpretation of the text. Mansfield Park was a lushious, emotional film that transports one into 19th century England and makes you long to be part of that world. It is well acted and beautifully photographed. It provides us with what most of us are looking for in a good, dramatic film. A well crafted story with characters that we can truly care for. It is a temptation to be an armchair critic and deride the film for its independance of the original story. But that defeats one of the primary purposes of film. A film such as this can make us forget our cinicism and take us on a journey (if we are willing to go along for the ride). It was truly wonderful.
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Summary: Might have turned out differently, I suppose. But it didn't.
Review: ...And so we have "Mansfield Park", "loosely" based on the Jane Austen novel of same name (although, as is mentioned in the credits, Austen's letters and non-fiction writings are also used, particularly for dialogue). The characters keep their original names, but, for the most part, not their personalities. The heroine, Fanny Price, is changed from the quiet, deeply moral character of the book into a feisty tomboy. The story follows the basic threads of the novel, but adds several subplots and individual scenes that you are not likely to find in any Austen novel (Fanny's uncle giving her the once over, Mary Crawford giving her the once over, etc.). So why the four stars?
Well, as an adaptaion, the film only merits two at best. But taken by itself and judged as a movie, I have to admit it's quite entertaining. While not the Fanny of the book, as played by Frances O'Conner the Fanny of the film is extremely likable. Embeth Davidtz and the very appealing Alessandro Nivola have a lot of fun with their characters; Nivola in particular capturing the mixture of sleaziness and vulnerablity that makes the womanizing Henry Crawford ever so slightly attractive. The visuals are sumptuous, and the dialogue is laced with Austen's unique wit, much of it not in the novel. My only real problems with the film are with the slavery subplot (icky and distracting) and Johnny Lee Miller as Fanny's true love. Changing the chracters personalities also changes their motivations, and the actions of Edward, while making sense in the book, are not logical in the film. As a result, Miller's Edward comes off as wimpy and indecisive and detracts from the story.
Other than these two quibbles, I quite like this little movie. You are more likely to enjoy it, I think, if you aren't comparing it to the novel the entire time, as it really has very little to do with Austen's story. Taken as a straight period film, though, "Mansfield Park" is an enjoyable way to spend a rainy afternoon.
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Summary: "Purist" Jane Austin fans may want to skip this one
Review: I am a very big fan of several of the Jane Austin novels, and also enjoyed seeing some of the screen versions. I especially liked "Sense and Sensibility" with Hugh Grant & Emma Thompson, as well as the A&E versions of "Emma" and, particularly, "Pride and Prejudice"(which I highly recommend). I was excited when I first saw previews for this move, since I had read and enjoyed the novel. But this movie did not seem to live up to my expectations. I felt that it didn't follow the novel. Some portions of the movie seemed to be added with the explicit intention of injecting some sort of sexual element to appeal to a wider audience. I was particularly upset by the portrayal of Edmund's father and the encounters with the slaves which, unless I remember incorrectly, was not in the novel. If what you want is a good screen adaptation of the novel "Mansfield Park", you may want to look elsewhere. You might be better off just sticking to the screen versions of the novels mentioned above.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting
Review: The book was not my favorite of Austen's. Fanny Price always seemed like a needy wimp to me. In Rozema's adaptation, Fanny is transformed into a strong, opinionated woman. Rozema showed what Austen could not: the feelings of love, loneliness, hopelessness, etc. The direction is fascinating and brilliant. This is the movie that keeps my aspirations of directing alive. It's a thing of beauty that haunts long after it's over. In my opinion, it doesn't deviate that much from the book. Austen could not have written about Maria Bertram's--indiscretion--explicitly, it was the 1800s for heaven's sake. It was implied what happened, though, and Rozema just gave the implication life. Austen could not write passion well, seeing as how she never experienced it, so Rozema showed it for her. Rozema also made Fanny have a little more spirit and modeled her after Austen herself, in ways. The stories Fanny reads are Austen's, etc. All in all, Rozema took the book and brought it to a new level of feeling. She didn't stray that far from the original. It was a wonderful movie that anyone should see even if Austen isn't to your tastes.
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Summary: this repulsive movie is a travesty of Jane Austen's book
Review: This movie left me with a bad taste and upset me. The personalities of the characters in the book are unacceptably altered in the movie, and an important one, William Price, is left out. Sir Thomas, who is a misguided, but kind man, is turned into an odious, cruel, hard monster.This movie is not for those who love Austen's novel. In fact, it should not have been called Mansfield Park. It has little in common with the novel.
If it had a different name, and was not advertised as "based on a novel by Austen," it would not have been seen by people who are fans of Austen, which would have made the makers of it lose money. Oh, what they do in order to attract a larger audience!
Too bad that there is no option to give 0 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Another Winner for Jane Austen
Review: As a newly devoted Jane Austen fan I love this movie. While I was seriously dissapointed with Northanger Abbey this movie restored my faith in adaptations on her stories. All of the characters are believable and in fact you have to cheer for the main character for standing up to all that she does, including her one obnoxious aunt. There are a few disturbing scenes with the older brothers drawings but they are very believable. If you liked Pride & Prejudice and Emma you will like this movie!
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