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Rating:  - Mansfield Park
This is a most entertaining and enjoyable piece of work by Jane Austen. It is delightful, witty and just a must see!! I have only had it a little while and all ready I have seen it more times than I can count.
Rating:  - An interesting movie, but not Mansfield Park.
This would have been an interesting movie if the film makers had titled it something other than "Mansfield Park." However, since they chose to present it as a rendition of the Jane Austen novel, I think they took far too many liberties with the story.
The biggest difference was in the character of Fanny Price. No matter how badly we in the twenty-first century want to believe it, she was *not* a modern, outspoken, independent woman. She was deeply conservative. If the film makers disliked that aspect, why choose this book to film at all?
No film can completely capture the spirit of a novel. But when I watch an adaptation I want to feel that it was created with a fundamental level of understanding of the book, and appreciation for it. This film fails.
Rating: - I think this is one of the best Austen movies (so shoot me.)
So often Austen movies are mis-cast and the characters you loved become just annoying. I think this movie was cast great. I realize that some liberties were taken, but I thought the tone was great. It moves fast, and Fanny Price is given more life than the book did. It makes her out to be a little bit more like Austen herself would be in my immagination. When so many of the other movies have blown it (by casting too old, too stupid, too mean etc,) this movie got a lot of things right. It made me want to read the book again which was probably a good goal for them.
Rating: - An improvement over the book
I greatly enjoyed this movie. While the characters are different from the book, the plot is essentially the same. The literary Fanny is, to put it bluntly, a "drip" and the literary Edmund is a sanctimonious prig. The Fanny in the film is bright, sardonic, and literary-minded, much like the young Jane Austen, while still being high-minded and loving. This Edmund, while still being serious and with a vocation for the church, is more capable of having fun. One can see why they're together. In the book, I couldn't.
Rating:  - Rent this. Don't buy.
I'm glad I chose to rent this before I bought. I own many Austen romances in movie form, but I won't bother buying this one. I didn't care for the interpretation at all. The cast had decent potential, but no one really stood out. This really wasn't romantically protrayed. I also didn't appreciate the raunchy undertones that were added. Not necessary and not appropriate for a wide audience.
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