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Bookmark this pageMansfield Park (1999)
Director: Patricia Rozema
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Rozema's fresh spin on Austen's most 'difficult' novel is not only her finest film to date, but one of the most ambitious - and successful - literary classic adaptations in recent memory. With the self-righteousness at the heart of Austen's heroine excised, Fanny Price becomes a bashful, even self-doubting figure, sidelined in the Bertram household by her lowly social status and her 'infallible judgment in matters of the heart', which consigns her to an indefinite spell in solitary before (perhaps) she finds her own happiness. The film riffs on the theme of moral rectitude and compromise, suggesting the rash, selfish or misguided actions which lead the other characters - often comically flawed, but never villainous - to fall from grace, and more generally the colonial crimes on which this 19th century gentility subsists. Delectably performed by a perfect cast, and beautifully measured by Rozema, whose light, fluid touch conveys the story along on a nod and a wink.Author: NB
User reviews of this film
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- Tom said...
- Posted on Dec 14 2008 08:03 pretty but stupid and completely off the mark "adaptation"
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Cast & crew
Director: Patricia Rozema
Producer: Sarah Curtis
Cast: Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, Frances O'Connor, Harold Pinter, Lindsay Duncan, Sheila Gish, Victoria Hamilton, James Purefoy, Justine Waddell full cast
Genre(s): Period/Swashbucklers
Duration: 112 mins
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