MANSFIELD PARK
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: A liberated young writer is brought
to her uncle's mansion to be little more than a
servant. As she grows she is involved in romantic
adventures as she seeks happiness and the right
husband for her. Patricia Rozema adapted and
directed the novel by Jane Austen mixing in details
from Austen's own life and adding themes that
Austen somehow missed. This is an entertaining but
decidedly fluffy tale of romance. Rating: 6 (0 to
10), +1 (-4 to +4)
Let me start by identifying my attitudes on Jane Austen so the reader knows if to continue or not. I consider these stories an excellent view into the minds of a certain class of woman in the early 19th century. Austen novels are at the high-end of what we have come to call the romance novel. Jane Austen heroines, if one may call them heroines, seem to aspire mostly only to achieve comfort. This they accomplish via the institution of marriage. The choice of whom they will marry is usually obvious to every reader, if not to the heroine herself, from the early pages of the novel. Her heroines are people with no ambition to be known fifty years after their death or indeed fifty miles from home during their lives. Usually the reader has more interest and certainly better knowledge of the events of their times than they appear to have themselves. They are living during the Napoleaonic Wars, a fascinating period, but to all appearances are ignorant of the fact. This does not say that great literature cannot be written about minor and narrowly absorbed people, but the greatness of some other authors is more readily apparent.
Fanny Price in the new MANSFIELD PARK is a little more aware of the world than most Austen heroines, though not by the intention of Jane Austen herself. Patricia Rozema who adapted the navel for the screen and then directed it has revised and corrected Austen for current audiences. To spice up Fanny's personality she now is a budding writer. The amusing melodramatic stories that Fanny writes are stories that really did exist. They are stories that Jane Austen herself wrote as a young teen. Fanny's knowledge of the world, her social conscience, and most of the anti-slavery subplot is all Rozema's revision. There is some but very little mention of slavery in the Austen novel, though by a coincidence that perhaps Austen herself was not aware of, Mansfield Park was named after Lord Mansfield who in 1772 ruled that any slave brought to England was legally free. The film's implications of open sex and even lesbianism are pulled from Rozema's fertile imagination. Still it is hard to be too harsh on a film with this much historic charm. It may not be what Austen intended, but it is still enjoyable.
Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor) was taken from her poor parents in Portsmouth at age ten and brought to Mansfield Park to be raised by the Bertram family who live in a huge mansion called Mansfield Park. The masters of Mansfield Park are her aunt and uncle and she is to have a status somewhere between a family member and a servant. She will get to know the Bertram children but everyone will be constantly aware that she is not their equal. She is treated at best insensitively by the family except for young Edmund Bertram who from the very start shows her compassion.
As the years pass Fanny is accepted at arm's length by the four Bertram children Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia. Into their lives come brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford (Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz), neighbors. Henry and Mary are close and share a tendency to flirt, an attraction to the opposite sex, a sense of style, an interest in the Bertrams, and both are attracted to women. Fanny who secretly loves Edmund sees him attracted to Mary Crawford and Maria and Julia attracted to Henry. But Henry is more interested in Fanny. This is Jane Austen so we know from the start that things will sort themselves out and that the heroine will get the right man and in doing so get to live on the big estate. "It could have ended differently, I suppose, but it didn't," Fanny muses at the end of the film. But then she does not know Jane Austen as well as we do.
Frances O'Connor's Fanny Price is perky and free-spirited, but just a little too attractive for the Jane Eyre-like heroine. Sir Thomas Bertram is played by none other than Harold Pinter. Alessandro Nivola does bring enough charm to the role of Henry that the audience is almost rooting for him. Michael Coulter's camera captures a usually bright and sunny view of early 19th century England created by production designer Christopher Hobbs and art director Andrew Munro. The historical detail is questionable with details like lipstick and eye makeup on a ten-year-old child, but it is nice to look at.
This is perhaps not Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, but Jane Austen would have probably recognized most of it and would have been amused by the rest. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper
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