Even if you have never read Austen, you will sense that something is wrong here long before a nude scene that would have made the author hide under a table.
Mansfield Park (1999)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:66
Fresh:50
Rotten:16
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Solid performances, bold direction.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Fanny Price, a precociously intelligent young woman, is sent by her impoverished parents to live with her mother's wealthy sisters and family in order to benefit from the intellectual and social... Fanny Price, a precociously intelligent young woman, is sent by her impoverished parents to live with her mother's wealthy sisters and family in order to benefit from the intellectual and social education, as well as material comforts, that their status affords. Fanny, of native wit, budding writing talents and a late-blooming audacity, responds well to the new environment, despite being treated as a second-class citizen by her aunts, uncle, and cousins -- with the notable exception of cousin Edmund, with whom Fanny forms a fast and close bond, and which later blossoms into love. When the smooth con-artist brother and sister act of Henry and Mary Crawford arrive and attempt to infiltrate the Betram social circle with eyes on marital connections and thereby, inheritance, Henry begins to appreciate Fanny's understated charms, and determines that she is the woman for him. Her luster, however, is due in part to her unspoken love for Edmund, and she flatly rejects Henry's advances, which she also regards as insincere. This causes great dismay to her uncle, who subjects her to heavy interrogation and pressure to submit. In the end, Fanny cannot betray her heart, and chooses to return to the veritable slums where her family still resides by the docks of Portsmouth. It's up to Edmund to realize, for himself, his love for Fanny, and hopefully provide a happy ending to the proceedings. [More]
Starring: Frances O'Connor, Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola
Starring: Frances O'Connor, Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, Harold Pinter, Lindsay Duncan, Sheila Gish, James Purefoy, Hugh Bonneville, Justine Waddell, Victoria Hamilton
Director: Patricia Rozema
Director: Patricia Rozema
Screenwriter: Patricia Rozema
Producer: Sarah Curtis
Composer: Lesley Barber
Reviews for Mansfield Park
Stifled and tedious adaptation of an Austen classic strips the heroine of her usual power of perception and tongue.
It was supposed to be 1806, but Mansfield Park the movie has a little too much 1999 in it...
Rozema tends to hurtle past some moments and dawdle fussily over others, but she gets a lot of the best things right.
With its gorgeous cinematography...lovely muted score, and sure-footed performances, especially by Frances O'Connor, Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park sets a new standard for adaptations of Jane Austen's work.
Too often steps out of its era to adopt a knowing, politically correct, late-20th-century attitude to the society portrayed.
This Mansfield Park becomes a kind of romanticized gloss -- an imaginative grad-student thesis that melds author and character.
Mansfield Park is not boring, exactly...Unfortunately, the middle, while remaining upbeat, never amounts to anything substantial.
Full of sparkling dialogue, witty asides, and top-drawer performances, Mansfield Park is a social satire wrapped inside a romantic comedy.
Enough of Austen's witty depiction of British society is preserved to keep the viewer pleasantly occupied.
Rozema's previous films...contain an almost magical-realism, with their vivid colors and strong focus on female sexuality. She attempts to work a similar magic here, but Mansfield Park's narrative and erotic currents are much more prosaic.
[Mansfield Park] is a smart hybrid: part novel adaptation, part biography. It's now a period saga overlaid with a modern sensibility.
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