In this regard, this film does an excellent job. It isn't what Austen wrote so much as what she would write if she wanted us to understand it. She intends this to be a blessing, but Fanny first feels abandoned, and in the next stage feels herself a second-class citizen, trapped somewhere between family and servitude. She wants a life with integrity, and would just as soon return to poverty as marry a man she doesn't trust. With her solid education and good mind, she wishes to express her thoughts rather than to be treated as a figurine.
Society has other ideas.
Mansfield Park has always been considered Jane Austen's most autobiographical work, and many consider it her most lifeless and her most excessively verbose. Much of it exists as an interior monologue. The filmmaker chose to embellish the semi-autobiographical life of Fanny Price with the completely autobiographical life of Jane Austen, as seen in her own letters, which become Fanny's letters to her sister back home. To further obviate the need for voice-over narration, Fanny speaks directly to the camera. When I write these comments, I try to pull my tastes out of the report to the extent possible in order to try to give you the info you need to determine whether you will like it.