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Rating:  - Missing scenes?
I absolutely love this adaptation, but I am disappointed that there are missing scenes in the DVD such as Mrs. Allen and Catherine in the tearoom, Catherine's bathtub fantasy, and Miss Tilney and Catherine's conversation to name a few. Though they were short scenes that don't take away from the overall plot, I expected to get the entire movie for what I paid for. I still love the DVD, but I didn't expect to miss parts from the movie.
Rating: - Very good but not perfect.
This version is far better than the old 1980's BBC version. The cast is excellent. The actress playing Catherine Morland was very close to how I pictured the character to be. The actor playing Henry Tilney was actually handsome and charming, something the previous actor in the role definitely was not. It was amusing seeing Sylvestra Le Touzel (my apologies if I spelled her name wrong), the Fanny Price from the old BBC version of Mansfield Park, as Mrs. Allen. She was also good in the part. I also found the little fantasy sequences from Catherine's novel reading to be very amusing.
I do have a few complaints about this version. One is that it was too short. Some of the action felt a bit rushed and I found myself explaining a lot of things to my husband, who has not read the book. Secondly, I would have preferred it if the writer had used a bit more of Jane Austen's dialogue from the book. I could not believe they left out the best lines, "I cannot speak well enough to be unitelligible." "Bravo!-an excellent satire on modern language." And of course, there were those several small deviations from the book that annoy die hard Jane Austen fans like myself.
Criticisms aside, for those who want a DVD version of this book, I would definitely recommend this version over the older one.
Rating:  - So-So Adaptation
Northanger Abbey is not, as noted by others, the easiest story to adapt to film and here I think they've only done a so-so job. The casting is all right, the heroine is appealing if pretty sappy and the story hasn't been mutilated too badly. However, like all the other new "Masterpiece" productions, Northanger rips along leaving out a lot and creating gaps that make the plot seem murky and/or really silly. Overall, not that good and definitely not up to previous versions. And, please, who decided that Gillian Anderson would make a good introducer for the new Masterpiece? She's terrible and the new format, if that is what it is, is not an improvement.
Rating:  - Northanger Abbey
I found this version of Northanger Abbey to be a masterful presentation of Jane Austen's novel. It holds true to her book and enlivens the story.
Rating: - Finally, a good version of Northanger Abbey
Out of all the new adaptations being done, I was most looking forward to Northanger Abbey (mostly because it is my favorite Jane Austen book and no decent movie of it exists). I am very happy to say that I was not dissapointed. The casting of this movie was spot on. The movie had a great flow to it and was never dull. Catherine's dream sequences were just as I imagine them from the book. I think my favorite performances (outside of Catherine & Henry who were both perfectly cast) were those of General Tillney and Isabella Thorpe who were exactly how I pictured them when reading the book. This is one Jane Austen adaption that I am eager to purchase and watch again. I think true fans of the book Northanger Abbey will not be dissapointed in.
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