| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Hannah Taylor Gordon | ... | |
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Talya Gordon | ... | |
| Lindsay Duncan | ... | ||
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Bruce Byron | ... | |
| James Purefoy | ... | ||
| Sheila Gish | ... | ||
| Harold Pinter | ... | ||
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Elizabeth Eaton | ... | |
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Elizabeth Earl | ... | |
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Philip Sarson | ... | |
| Amelia Warner | ... | ||
| Frances O'Connor | ... | ||
| Jonny Lee Miller | ... | ||
| Victoria Hamilton | ... | ||
| Hugh Bonneville | ... | ||
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. Written by <[email protected]>
The location shooting at Kirby Hall is symptomatic of the film - an impressive looking shell, with nothing inside it.
Mansfield Park is Austen's sharpest and subtlest satire, leavened with some splendid comedy characters. This however seems to have passed completely over the makers, who have provided us instead with an admittedly prettily photographed film that conveys nothing of the book. It's difficult of course to compress it into the space of two hours, but at least they might have tried. As it is the plot is sadly garbled; I doubt that anyone who had not read the book (or at least a synopsis of it) would make head or tail of what was going on, and anyone who has read the book would be completely baffled by the cavalier discarding of key elements of the book. What is unmistakably a 20th century cast with 20th century manners dresses up and romps through it as a bodice ripper, completely missing the point that it's meant to be a study of social power structures breaking down in 18th century England. I found myself with a finger on the fast forward butting, wanting the cast to get out of the way of the scenery.