Mansfield Park

Excellent adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Especially the visuals are worth commenting on as they are neither as bleak as those in the BBC adaptations of classics and neither the picture postcard of recent cinema adaptations of Austen's work.

As a child Fanny Price is taken in by her well-to-do aunt and uncle, the Bertrams, at Mansfield Park. Fanny is raised in the large manor-house with her four cousins, but she is not treated as their equal. Only the youngest son Edmund, whom Fanny has a very close relationship to, sees her develop into an perceptive and lively young woman.

While Sir Bertram and the eldest son Tom are away on business, the siblings Henry and Mary Crawford arrive. Fanny only sees superficiality and insincerety, but everybody else appears taken in by their charming and worldly manner.

Patricia Rozema has successfully modernized the story and Fanny's character in particular.