Frances O'Connor in "Mansfield Park."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Star: Frances O'Connor Director: Patricia Rozema Rated: PG-13, with brief nudity, sex Length: 110 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Dec. 24, 1999) -- When Patricia Rozema agreed to make a film of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, she wanted it to be more than the latest in a long line of Austen-inspired social satires of repressed emotions, English class struggles and parlor-room power games.

We've had many such films of late -- good ones, such as Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and Emma. But Rozema took her film to the next step -- incorporating the spirit, personality, letters and diaries of Austen herself.

As both screenwriter and director, Rozema converted Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, from a quietly undemonstrative central figure to an outspoken and determined young woman with a mind of her own.

In other words, she turned her into Jane Austen.

The resulting film is a smart hybrid: part novel adaptation, part biography. It's now a period saga overlaid with a modern sensibility.

Surprisingly, the daring combination not only works, it's also witty, sexy, droll and eminently entertaining.

The basic elements of Mansfield Park are in place: Fanny Price is the poor relation who gets to grow up on the estate of her aunt and uncle, only to find herself planted in a hothouse of romantic schemes, collapsing family fortunes and manipulated marriage proposals.

Moreover, Fanny discovers the household is financed by the slave trade, a fact amplified from a relatively brief mention in the novel. The outspoken Fanny objects to such suffering "paying for the party at Mansfield Park."

As the story unfolds, Fanny must fight her way out of a marriage contrived for her against her wishes while simultaneously finding her own way in the male-dominated society of the day.

Australian actress Frances O'Connor enlivens Fanny with a charismatic, glowing performance. In support, Jonny Lee Miller is frustrating and affecting as the young cousin who lacks the confidence to pursue Fanny, while writer-turned-actor Harold Pinter is stern and appropriately unrevealing as the patriarch of Mansfield Park.

Mansfield Park is bound to offend hard-core Janeites, the Austen fans looking for a lock-step adaptation of the novel. They'll also probably be shocked to discover a few moments of nudity.

However, open-minded filmgoers -- and the many unfamiliar with the novel -- should be pleased by this delightful fantasia on the work and life of Jane Austen.