Mansfield Park - The Movie

As I sat bored this evening scrolling through Netflix I stumbled upon the movie of Mansfield Park, a book that I read for Women and Literature first semester by Jane Austen. Now I liked the book, but we kind of beat it to death in that class so it got to the point I didn't even want to think about it anymore, but I am a sucker for things set in or around the Victorian era so I decided to give it a try.

The thing that I noticed right off the bat was that they gave Fanny Price a much stronger personality then they did in the novel, probably to endear her to modern viewing audiences. At the beginning of the film they said it was also based off Jane Austen's personal stories and journals so I am guessing that is why they made Fanny a writer which she was not in the book. Dare I say that I liked her a lot more in the movie because she kind of reminded me of myself? Not the loving one man all my life bit, but the sassy writer who was quite and meek most of the time in the company of others.

As for the characters themselves I thought that it was a bit hit and miss. Fanny, Edmund, Henry, and Rushworth were close to what I imagined they would look like, however I did not find the Bertram girls or Mary Crawford to be pretty enough. As for the characters themselves, Mrs. Norris was no where near mean enough and Lady Bertram had no character, which really wasn't that far from the book, but I was expecting more. However the dynamic between Mary and Edmund was very accurate to the book in my opinion, which is all this blog is. Sir Thomas is a major creep in the movie, there is no loving father figure, just creepy old uncle. Also the whole relationship between Henry and Fanny was much more dramatic in the movie then novel.

The biggest difference between the novel and the movie was the importance of slavery. It is mentioned once, maybe twice, in the novel, yet it is a figure head in the movie. It is the reason that Tom and Sir Tomas are at odds and I found the part with the drawings completely unnecessary, but it made Tom a more likable character, for the little you saw him. Also the whole visit to Southerton, which is one of the most comical in the novel, was also completely missing.

Overall it was a fun distraction and entertaining, but it is not going to become my new favorite movie. It gets a 4 out of 5 because I did really enjoy the storytelling that was done and I thought the actors were brilliant.