Mansfield Park details
| Format: | 15 DVD |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Victoria Hamilton, Justine Waddell, James Purefoy, Hugh Bonneville, Alessandro Nivola, Lindsay Duncan, Embeth Davidtz, Harold Pinter, Frances O'Connor, Jonny Lee Miller, Sheila Gish |
| Director: | Patricia Rozema |
| Genre: | Drama - General, Period |
| Studio: | WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
Mansfield Park |
15 Feature |
DVD Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 47 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | Currently unavailable |
| Main languages: | English |
| Subtitles: | English |
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Most helpful review
Mansfield Park on drugs
By a customer from Canterbury , 07 Feb 2006[Highly rated reviewer]
This isn't an awful movie. It's quite watchable. Some of the acting, especially from Pinter is excellent.
But the rest resembles those films made from classic novels in the 30s where no one concerned in making it had time to read the book. A quick treatment by a college student, a quick script conference, then off we go. Rozema has almost no idea of what the book is about but is entirely unembarrassed by her ignorance in her interview on the DVD.
Austen fans don't have to wait long to discover just how far off the wavelength she is. The first contact between Sir Thomas and Fanny is a reproof for running through MP's corridors shrieking like a banshee. Lines are taken from Mary Crawford in the book and given to Fanny in the film. How's that for missing the point? One by one characters appear looking no more recognisable than if they were appearing in a literary celebrity edition of Scooby Doo.
If the film was called something else and the characters had different names, it would be impossible to trace it's origins to Austen's book which is definitely not a conventional love story about bright young things getting together having overcome a few obstacles.
There's very little to choose between the morals of Rozema's characters, so nothing of the catastrophic descent into the abyss is associated with the production of Lover's Vows, nor do we have any glimpse of Rushworth and Crawford vandalising Sotherton. Mrs Norris is one of the most deliciously evil creations in literature - Rozema reduces her part to a few lines. Thomas Betram is a 'modern' artist - yikes! William Price, Fanny's brother and one of the key relationships in the book, is missing altogether. Susan, her sister, has been reading too many Style magazines.
Mansfield Park might have been a bit like this had it been written by Georgette Heyer or even Jackie Collins. As an Austen adaptation it is execrable. But it's so far off the mark, that as something else entirely, it's not all that bad. Maybe they should just change the title.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(38)Brilliant film
By Sazzy1212 (2 reviews) , 02 Dec 2012I loved it - great actors - If only people's morals were like Fanny's these days then the world would be a much better place ;-)- Was this review helpful to you?
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Typical Austen Storyline!
By a customer from Pershore , 12 Sep 2010This movie depicts a typical Austen story. It is well acted out and I think that Frances O'Conner is superb as the main character namely - Fanny Price. Needless to say, she is well supported by a stong cast and I like the way the story unfolded through Fanny's verbally spoken letters to her sister.
For the first 15 or so minutes I thought we were onto a loser as the movie was slow, so those hiring, please stay with it as the storyline picks up making the film well worth watching ... especially those into costume drama.- Was this review helpful to you?
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A Feisty Fanny and Harold Pinter
By Cirsh (35 reviews) from Hebden Bridge , 29 Sep 2009(1999) This enjoyable film doesn’t really follow the book and attempts to interweave the story from the novel with parts of Austins’ life. The film is based upon based on the “Jane Austin novel, her letters and early journals” - which gives the director, Patricia Rozema, the opportunity to allude to modern themes such as slavery (“We all live off the profits of the slaves on the plantations”) and tobacco.
Fanny Price is sent away to rich relatives, the Bertrams of Mansfield Park. On arrival she overhears Sir Thomas say to the family, “She is not your equal but this must never be apparent to her”. And what a treat we have in Sir Thomas Bertram - he played by Harold Pinter.
Enter the Crawfords, Mary and Henry. Fanny refuses the charm of Crawford - much to the anger of her benefactor, Sir Thomas. “Marriage is indeed a manouevering business”. Fanny is determined to marry for love or not at all.
I always feel a little guilty enjoying Austin novels. But they are great (if often predictable) stories where, as with the novels of the Brontes, Elliot and Gaskell the heroines are often feisty, intelligent and determinedly independent. Or is that just how modern film directors would like to see these women? Does the Fanny of the book actually have a tongue “sharper than the guillotine“? I seem to remember her being more shy and modest.
I wasn’t convinced by Johnny Lee Miller’s Edmund. The chemistry between him and Fanny wasn’t quite there. But I enjoyed Harold Pinter, and the photographic feel of the film, and was sorry when it ended.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Mansfield park
By Mike99 (262 reviews) from Sudbury , 12 Jun 2009Good period drama, fantastic costumes.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Mansfield Park
By a customer from Luton , 08 Mar 2009Good adaptation of the classic. Not bad acting either.- Was this review helpful to you?
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