Download Mansfield Park (1999)

Mansfield Park (1999)
Directed by
Patricia Rozema
Writing credits
Jane Austen (novel)
Patricia Rozema (written by)
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Genre: Drama / Comedy (more)
Tagline: Jane Austen's Wicked Comedy
Plot Summary: At 10, Fanny Price, a poor relation, goes to live at Mansfield Park, the estate
of her aunt's husband, Sir Thomas. Clever, studious, and a writer with an ironic imagination
and fine moral compass, she becomes especially close to Edmund, Thomas's younger son.
Fanny is soon possessed of beauty as well as a keen mind and comes to the attention of a
neighbor, Henry Crawford. Thomas promotes this match, but to his displeasure, Fanny has a
mind of her own, asking Henry to prove himself worthy. As Edmund courts Henry's sister and
as light shines on the link between Thomas's fortunes and New World slavery, Fanny must
assess Henry's character and assert her heart as well as her wit.
Summary written by {[email protected]}
User Comments: Mansfield Park is not for the Austen purist! (more)
User Rating:
7.1/10 (3,614 votes)
Cast overview, first billed only:
Hannah Taylor-Gordon .... Young Fanny (as Hannah Taylor Gordon)
Talya Gordon
.... Young Susan
Lindsay Duncan
.... Mrs. Price/Lady Bertram
Bruce Byron
.... Carriage Driver
James Purefoy
.... Tom Bertram
Sheila Gish
.... Mrs. Norris
Harold Pinter
.... Sir Thomas Bertram
Elizabeth Eaton
.... Young Maria
Elizabeth Earl
.... Young Julia
Philip Sarson
.... Young Edmond
Amelia Warner
.... Teenage Fanny
Frances O'Connor
.... Fanny Price
Jonny Lee Miller
Victoria Hamilton
Hugh Bonneville
(more)
.... Edmund Bertram
.... Maria Bertram
.... Mr. Rushworth
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief violent images, sexual content and drug use.
Runtime: 112 min
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Certification: Iceland:L / Malaysia:U / Australia:M / Germany:6 / Hong Kong:IIB /
Netherlands:AL / New Zealand:M / Singapore:PG / Spain:T / Switzerland:10 (canton of
Geneva) / Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) / UK:15 / USA:PG-13
Goofs: Audio/visual unsynchronized: The music we hear does not correspond to the fingering
of the harp. In particular, the lowest notes should sound from the longest strings, i.e. furthest
away from the player, not as shown. (more)
Quotes: Mary Crawford: What I'd like to know is... which gentleman among you am I to
have the pleasure of making love to? (more)
Awards: 2 nominations (more)
User Comments:
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful:Mansfield Park is not for the Austen purist!, 16 May 2005
Author:
04Student05 from United States
I was sadly disappointed in this adaptation of a delightful Austen classic. Although the
storyline loosely follows the book, many of the most important scenes were left out of the
movie. What's worse, the heart and soul of the book (Fanny Price's shining character) is not
portrayed well in the movie. At times, Fanny is fickle, indecisive, brash, and disrespectful, the
complete opposite of the literary Fanny's character. Still, any movie based on an Austen novel
cannot be all bad. If you haven't read Mansfield Park, or if you are not an Austen purist or
accustomed to her superior style, you may enjoy it. Otherwise, expect to be dissatisfied with
this film.
MANSFIELD PARK
Running time: 107 mins
Starring: Frances O'Connor, Jonny Lee Miller, Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro Nivola, Harold
Pinter, Lindsay Duncan, Justine Waddell
I may not have always paid close attention in my English Literature classes, but I'm pretty
sure that my copy of Austen's witty romantic drama didn't include lovemaking or a brief
flirtation between heroine Fanny Brice (Frances O'Connor) and conniving gold-digger Mary
Crawford (Embeth Davidz).
Whispers of child abuse, rape, alcoholism - perhaps those pages were torn out of my version
too. This Mansfield Park is anything but a faithful and slavish adaptation. Sexy and
stylistically daring, certainly. But emotionally engaging? The jury's still out on that one.
Director Patricia Rozema pares down the plot to a compact and bijou 90 minutes, focusing on
plucky yet naive Fanny who leaves her poverty-stricken home to live with her wealthy uncle,
Sir Thomas Bertram (Harold Pinter).
Over time, Fanny becomes an integral part of the Bertram household, catering to the every
whim of the permanently sozzled lady of the house (Lindsay Duncan), and suppressing her
burgeoning feelings for her cousin, Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller), who is poised to take up his
religious calling.
Etiquette is thrown to the wind when rakish Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola) and his
sister Mary breeze into the neighbourhood, and send hearts fluttering.
Australian actress O'Connor, sporting an impeccable clipped English accent, is splendid as the
spirited Innocent in Wonderland.
Unfortunately Miller, while easy on the eye, lacks charisma and comes across as something of
a drip.
Davidtz has a ball as the seductress with one eye on her purse and the other on the
competition, and Nivola (shoe-horned into a pair of breeches that must have played havoc
with his blood circulation) swaggers as if it were going out of fashion.
Mansfield Park
Director: Patricia Rozema
Cast: Frances O'Connor, Johnny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz
(Miramax/BBC Films, 1999) Rated: PG-13
by j.serpico
Contributing Writer
e-mail this article
Prosaic Magic
On Mansfield Park's official Miramax website, the book upon which the
film is loosely based is heralded as "Jane Austen's third and most controversial novel." This claim,
directed at Mansfield Park the novel, seems an attempt to re-invigorate interest in a text oftentimes
considered Austen's blandest. The film's opening credits reveal other efforts to this revisionist end,
informing us that writer-director Patricia Rozema has not only adapted the novel, but has also
incorporated "the early letters and journals of Jane Austen" into her screenplay. The resulting film and
its protagonist, Fanny Price, might be considered an amalgamation of Austen's texts, historical facts
regarding her personal life, and feminist notions concerning both.
As the film begins, we see Fanny as a pre-teen (Hannah Taylor-Gordon), her dark eyes pensive and
shiny, her face pretty but her hair and clothes woefully unkempt. Hoping to ensure for her a proper
marriage, Fanny's mother sends the girl from their own squalid Portsmouth home to live with Fanny's
aunts and cousins, a hundred miles away in Mansfield Park. Upon her arrival there, Fanny is informed
that although she is "not pretty," perhaps she will be "useful" around the house.
This particular moment evokes that in Gillian Armstrong's Little Women when Jo, played by Winona
Ryder, is told that her long, lustrous tresses are her only beauty. Think about what's being suggested in
these two films by self-named feminist filmmakers. What kind of leap of faith must be taken by viewers
to believe that Ryder or the lovely Taylor-Gordon are not "beautiful"? Why would Armstrong or
Rozema use such conventionally appealing actors to symbolize girls who struggle with real problems
concerning self-worth versus socially defined "beauty"?
Following this sniffy evaluation, Fanny's aunt then shows her where she'll be living, an isolated atticroom, formerly servants' quarters. Almost immediately, Fanny sits down at her desk and begins to
write. Suddenly, in a flashy time ellipsis meant to signify the passing of several years, we see Fanny
become a poised and quietly attractive young woman (now played by Frances O'Connor). She has
apparently spent much of her time writing at her desk by the window, overlooking the sprawling green
estate that is Mansfield Park. The ellipsis suggests that Fanny's efforts at self-education through
reading and writing have become her saving grace in a place where she does not fit in. However small
the attic-room, the desk appears large, providing Fanny with a sense of fulfillment that her relatives at
Mansfield Park can only attempt to achieve through their wealth. Fanny's intelligence and composure,
indicated by her journal- and letter-writing at this desk, make her a familiar and comforting heroine.
Her letters are addressed to her sister Anne, who remains in Portsmouth, and are often read aloud by
Fanny in direct-address to the camera. This technique recalls Matthew Broderick's incessant winking
at the camera in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. How this stylistic touch fits into the film's narrative and
aesthetics is a mystery. These ongoing asides seem designed as "explanation," but most of her
comments are also illustrated by events on-screen.
Fanny's letters describe life at Mansfield Park as a "quick succession of busy nothings," alleviated only
by her writing rituals and alliance with her cousin Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller), youngest son of the
Bertrams (Harold Pinter and Lindsay Duncan), who intends to enter the parsonage, conveniently
located on the grounds of the estate. Though he is clearly established as Fanny's soulmate and sole
confidante, he resists his own longing for her until the film's end.
Edmund's resistance seems cloying, meant only to prolong the film's inevitable denouement. Still, it's a
repeated theme in Austen's novels, that heroines fall in love with men whose social status exceeds their
own. Those lads who are characterized as having integrity and sensitivity eventually embrace their less
fortunate lovers due to these same characteristics. With his religious aspirations and adoration of
literature, Edmund conforms to the romantic ideal of the perfect Austen mate.
Fanny's and Edmund's evolving romance is interrupted by the arrival of Henry and Mary Crawford
(Alessandro Nivola and Embeth Davidtz), a bohemian brother and sister act that proceeds to seduce
several of the estate's residents. There are several moments where Fanny and Mary seem to enjoy each
other a bit too much, and their relationship and its potentialities remain delightfully and subversively
ambiguous. But the dormant lesbian liaison never comes alive, as it's soon clear that Mary, like her
brother Henry, is adept at the art of manipulation. The duo appear to have secretly decided to possess
both Fanny and Edmund (or Edmund's not-so-bright sisters), as means to their seeming fortunes, and
a great part of the film is devoted to dramatizing the brother and sister's strained attempts at conquest.
Alas, it appears that Fanny, aside from her moments of flirtation with Mary, cannot be swayed from
her adoration of Edmund, even by the beguiling lothario Henry, who goes to great and entertaining
lengths to capture her (including a wagon full of starlings and firecrackers). Fanny stays her
predictable course, refusing to trust Henry. And her suspicion proves correct when she catches him
mounting her married cousin in a scene surely not taken from the novel.
Edmund is more easily swayed, at least at first. He takes (much too long of) a while to discover that the
sexy dominatrix-like Mary is not an ideal candidate for the wife of a preacher. The film loses its
momentum in these romantic meanderings. So much time is spent developing Henry's pursuit of
Fanny that one can't help but begin to soften to his charms and wish she would shut up already. By
contrast, the time and energy invested in developing the relatively wimpy role of Edmund seem
meager.
Rozema's previous films — I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987), When Night Is Falling (1995) —
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. Perhaps the basic plot is un-updateable. Every time Fanny recites her mantra — "Run
mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!" — one cannot help but long for a moment where Fanny
would do just that, thereby leaving the over-rated Mansfield Park.
And yet, at times Rozema does inject the story, set in 1806, with a '90's "sense and sensibility." The
worst case of this is a sporadic digression depicting Fanny's increasing comprehension of her uncle's
dealings in the Antiguan slave trade. Her awareness culminates in the discovery of drawings depicting
Sir Bertram himself engaging in vicious acts of rape, assault, and kidnaping. These scenes are
grotesquely out of place within a romantic comedy of manners. Their position as dramatic (and too
neatly resolved) sidebar trivializes them, as well as any liberal statements about slavery Rozema seems
to want to make.
Perhaps these scenes are intended to demonstrate Fanny's burgeoning understanding of the upper
classes' corrupt and murderous foundation. But she never acts on her realization. Instead, after a brief
visit to Portsmouth, she realizes that she "belongs" with the Bertrams, regardless of their "moral"
shortcomings. Her newfound sense of belonging is fully embraced near the film's end, when Edmund
finally realizes and declares his long-hidden love for Fanny, and she smiles securely out at the
audience.