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Rating:  - Best Northanger Abbey.
I have read the book and seen the 1986 Northanger Abbey movie and this one is the BEST!! It captures everything from the book. However, it did cut out some conversations but overall it was the best!
Rating: - Not a Cliff-Notes Northanger Abbey
I ordered this dvd the instant the credits began to roll after it aired on PBS 1-20-08. I really enjoyed the movie(though of course it was a bit too short), and I think almost any fan of Austen would enjoy it as well.
The characters in the movie were very well portrayed. Catherine was
picture perfect to me, as if she had walked right off the page...and Henry was so utterly delightful that I still want to grab him right out of the tv and just hug him until his face turns red. Or...perhaps
a demure kiss on the cheek at least!
While some reviewers found the film a bit racier than expected, I think the racier scenes representing Catherine's daydreams were in keeping with the tone and content of the novels she was actually supposed to be reading...likewise, the allusion to Byron shows a familiarity with the issues of thought, independence, sensuality and immorality which he represented for many people around the time the novel itself would have been written (or slightly before). The mention of Byron by a particular character ties his image to that of another character in the film in a way that I believe to be a very good representation of Austen's intentions in the novel.
My only warning is that people should definitely be wary of watching this as a sort of cliff notes guide to the novel...especially in order to complete any important assignments. (Not that people would do that anyway, of course...it's very wrong...)
As far as the movie was concerned, I can see how the "do you think she reads too many novels?" comments helped to integrate the wild gothic scenes of Catherine's imagination into the more realistic narrative more fully. In fact, I thought the integration worked pretty well over all... the music, the air of menace around another particular character, and the dark and somewhat hazy lighting of the abbey did a great job of making Catherine's leap of imagination seem plausible (perhaps a smoother transition than in the novel).
I really would have liked to have seen the argument for
reading and imagination in some capacity, and I think the simple
inclusion of Austen's own defense (of novels and novel-writing) as part of Henry's observation that he reads novels(or failing that, perhaps a similar observation by him or his sister prefaced by the question to Catherine"what are you reading?" and Catherine's response "Oh, it is nothing, only a novel") would have been simple, effective, and hardly of
consideration in the final editing for time...but I must admit that I
know next to nothing about writing for, directing, filming, or editing
movies...;-)
The omission of such a crucial component of the novel(in this film adaptation)ends up changing the entire message of the novel. The spirited defense of novel writers and readers that Austen states so overtly (and thus so uncharacteristically) is reduced to its corollary--the cautionary tale about letting one's imagination run away with them (and while this corollary starts out quite strongly in the novel, it is quietly reduced by degrees until neither heroine nor reader are completely sure they believe it).
Ultimately however, this film is visually delightful, entertaining and engaging, and questions of the "moral" of the story (while instructive) are unlikely to detract from any viewer's enjoyment of the adventure of a young lady's first(and only) romance. :-)
Rating:  - Jane Misunderstood
Lev Raphael's review said it best, so I'll add only this. Jane Austen didn't write this novel as a romance novel, but as a parody of one. This irony escaped the screenwriter as well as Gillian Anderson. In the book, Tillney's feelings for Catherine remain ambiguous to the end (note to readers: a spoiler comment follows) -- does he propose because he loves her or because his father forced him to court her and he now feels bound by honour to marry her?
Jane Austen was so much more than a romance novelist -- why do adaptations insist on reducing the complexity of her? I agree with other reviewers -- for the real Jane, try Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility, and the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. Other adaptations fall too far short.
Rating:  - At least it's a bit better than older BBC version
I hated the version of Persuasion that they just broadcast, but this one does a nice, concise job of telling the tale and it's fairly easy to follow for non-Janeites. It's actually better than the murky one done years ago with Peter Firth as Tilney, so that's something. It isn't the greatest, but it's a bit better.
Rating:  - Is it possible to read too many novels?
"Northanger Abbey" is a nicely done screen adaptation of one of Jane Austen's earliest novels. The familiar elements of a Jane Austen are here, along with a surprising dollop of satire.
The heroine, young Catherine Morland (played with appropriate wide-eyed innocence by Felicity Jones), a middle class addict of gothic novels, is invited by wealthy family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen to accompany them to Bath. Bath is the big city for young Catherine, who is dazzled by the shops, the night life, and the young men.
In the course of her travels in Bath with Mrs. Allen and with young friend Isabella, Catherine meets and is almost immediately wooed by two very different gentlemen. The aggressive and rather obnoxious John Thorpe is brother to Isabella, who shares Catherine's taste in Gothic novels and who is about to become engaged to Catherine's brother. The Thorpes are under the impression that Catherine's family has money. The second gentlemen is Henry Tilney, quiet, unassuming, yet witty and with an air of mystery about him. Henry's father, the dour and forbidding General Tilney, shares the impression that Catherine comes from money.
Catherine finds Henry and his sister Elinor to be better company, and is ultimately invited to the family seat of Northanger Abbey, where Henry's mother died a few years earlier. The air of mystery about the Abbey excites Catherine's already overheated imagination, and she puts at risk her budding relationship with Henry by entering the forbidden chambers of the dead mother. Her thoughtless act triggers unhappy confrontations with Henry and with General Tilney. A saddened Catherine returns home, vowing to put Gothic romance behind, only to get another chance at happiness.
"Northanger Abbey" features excellent period costumes and authentic sets. The movie is fairly brisk at just 90 minutes and seems to be hurrying itself along in the last half hour, during the scenes at Northanger Abbey. The acting is good to excellent, especially Carey Mulligan as the selfish and duplicitious Isabella and Felicity Jones as the innocent and imaginative but good-hearted Catherine. This movie is highly recommended as good entertainment for fans of Jane Austen and PBS's Masterpiece Theater.
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