Mansfield Park

Just Slightly Ahead of Her Time

88 out of 100

Set in 1806 England and based on the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park steers clear of the pitfalls that waylay many a British period piece; it is neither stuffy and tedious nor an expressionistic bodice-ripper. Instead, thanks to a gripping plot, vivid characters and a penetrating screenplay, it is a moving portrait of an extraordinary soul. At the center of the story is Fanny Price, who is born into a poor, chaotic household, then exposed to all the comforts and pleasures of wealth, and in the end forced to find happiness on her own terms. Portrayed by Australian actress Frances O'Connor, Fanny is independent-minded, literate, and an acute judge of character. The latter quality is particularly useful to fend off scheming, devious relatives and an ardent but insincere suitor.

At the age of about 10, Fanny is sent from her shambles of a home to live with relatives at Mansfield Park, a huge, stately mansion with sprawling, manicured gardens. Although she is treated with chilly condescension, she is unusually self-possessed even at that early age, regaling her sister with letters containing cute, spooky made-up stories and establishing a playful and joyous relationship with her cousin Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller, from Trainspotting).

Fanny grows into a beauty with a peaked mouth, smoldering dark eyes, and a swelling bosom. (Can it be true that 19th-century women wore dresses as low-cut as they do in these period movies?) But she is constrained by her circumstances and forced to suppress her views. As one observer puts it, she is "as fearful of notice and praise as most women are of neglect." Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola), a rakish charmer, woos her, but she demurs, perceiving that he "wants to be loved, not to love." She chooses to be banished rather than to accept Henry's hand in marriage, and returns to her appallingly unkempt and squalid family home, which is overrun with small children and vermin and where she must share a bed with her winsome sister, who looks disconcertingly like Leonardo DiCaprio.

Not easily deterred, Henry moves to Fanny's home town, declares himself a changed man, and briefly succeeds in changing Fanny's "no" to a "yes." But Fanny soon reconsiders, enraging Henry and drawing into sharp focus the terrible choice between marrying for money and a life of extremely limited choices. (Her mother informs her bitterly, "I married for love.") Fanny is recalled to Mansfield Park, and an exchange between her and Edmund during the carriage ride enroute is telling: when Fanny tries to explain to Edmund what has happened with Henry, Edmund quiets her, saying, "surely you and I are beyond speaking, when words are not enough." It is a heart-rending moment, illustrating the depth of the relationship between the two.

In time Henry's true nature is exposed, Fanny's uncle (Harold Pinter) is revealed to have a shameful involvement in slave trading, and Henry's sister Mary (Embeth Davitz, of The Gingerbread Man and Schindler's List) engineers a Machiavellian plot to succeed to Fanny's uncle's wealth. Through it all, in a performance touching upon the mainsprings of human emotion, O'Connor's Fanny is a tower of strength and composed integrity.

Some critics have noted, eyebrows arched, that Mansfield Park takes considerable liberties with the original novel. Be that as it may, this is a compelling, gimmick-free story beautifully told by director/screenwriter Patricia Rozema. Mansfield Park is one of the most consistent and entertaining pictures of the year.

VIDEO TIP: The shoe is on the other foot, financially speaking, in Washington Square (1997), an adaptation of a Henry James novel. Albert Finney plays a wealthy, dour, overprotective father, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is his repressed daughter, who struggles to break free and find love. While not as compelling as Mansfield Park, it is finely crafted and well worth renting.

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