Mansfield Park

The third in the Jane Austen complete series on PBS's Masterpiece, Mansfield Park, aired last Sunday, and I was not impressed. Staying true to my plan, I had re-read the book prior to viewing the new movie, and it lead to great disappointment.

Fanny Price is not my favorite heroine, but I do see a lot of good qualities in her. She's strong, resolute and doesn't put aside her personal convictions to satisfy anyone even to benefit herself. I respect that. She is pursued by the elegant Mr. Crawford, whom everyone else admires. And yet Fanny will not yield to him. She just doesn't trust him, and as later revealed in the story, she is right not to do so. Fanny secretly pines for her cousin Edmund, who has hastily thrown his affections on the undeserving Mary Crawford. And so, Fanny just waits--at times in agony and desperation-- and eventually her darling Edmund realizes his folly, sees Fanny's worth and the lovers are united.

I don't like Edmund on screen or in the book. In my estimation, his character is weak. He spends a good portion of the book whining to Fanny about his love for Mary Crawford...does she love me, does she love me not, etc. Maybe it's just my prejudice against men who always fall for the fluff...you know how that is. But I am glad that Fanny and Edmund get together in the end, and yet somehow I find it hard to believe that he deserves her. WOW! I'm rather a feminist today.

In 1999, most Jane Austen fans were disappointed with Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park. I confess that I was one of those disappointed fans at first. The director chose to give the film a sensual edgy quality that was lacking in the book. But after re-reading the book and playing over the film in my mind as a comparison, the 1999 version doesn't stray terribly far from Austen's prose. They add in some things, overstate some other aspects and take a great deal of creative license with the characters, but the storyline is still there. And I find that I like it better now, after experiencing this latest version which I disliked so much.

In the 2008 rendition, Fanny has blonde hair that is kept down and in her face, rather than pinned back like the style of the day. I don't know if the directors wanted to give Fanny a wild country appearance in comparison to the looks of her cousins or what, but in my opinion, Sir Thomas Bertram would never have allowed a niece living under his roof to look so disheveled. But that was just the beginning of my dislike, the characters are just all wrong, the acting was less than best, major scenes of the book were cut, the scenes were rushed, etc. It was distressing to see one of Austen's complex love stories appear so different on the screen.

So will I buy this version? I'm thinking NOT. I now prefer the 1999 version to all others, and that's saying a lot since I was initially disgusted with it. It's grown on me, I guess.