if this keeps up , jane austen ( sense and sensibility , pride and prejudice ) may have to apply for posthumous membership to the screen writers guild .
yet another novel of hers has made the transition to the silver screen .
mansfield park is a turn of the century ( 18th century going on 19th ) story about love among the classes as well as an examination into proper society and family ties .
ten year old fanny price ( hannah taylor - gordon , jakob the liar ) , taken from her mother and father and the poverty in which they dwell , is sent to live with her aunt and the privileged class at mansfield park , under the stern patriarchal hand of her uncle , sir thomas bertram ( harold pinter , mojo ) spending her days reminded of her lower status , she also invents and writes fanciful stories during her private times .
fanny eventually grows to become a beautiful , intelligent , and engaging heroine ( quite unlike the original character which ms .
austen originally penned in her novel . )
writer / director patricia rozema ( when night is falling ) is responsible for the textual changes .
from a purely dramatic perspective , the revision makes perfect sense and improves the film 's audience appeal .
what ms .
rozema has done is to infuse the main character with much of ms .
austen 's own personality by including excerpts from the author 's journals , giving that dialogue to fanny .
the result is a central character that is immediately appealing . as the grown fanny , australian actress frances o'connor ( all about adam ) does wonderfully textured work
.
at times , ms .
rozema has fanny address the camera directly to communicate many of the novel 's more introspective observations .
this is a difficult device to work seamlessly into a period film and it is to ms .
o'connor 's credit that it works as well as it does .
the central theme which gives the story its legs in an old one .
. .
whether it is better to marry for love or for social standing ?
fanny has fallen in love with her cousin edmund ( jonny lee miller , plunkett & macleane ) who appears fond of her as well .
his attentions are soon divided as the stylish and socially acceptable mary crawford ( embeth davidtz , bicentennial man ) enters the picture along with her equally acceptable brother henry ( alessandro nivola , inventing the abbotts ) who eventually sets his romantic sights upon fanny .
while mary and henry are evidently less than sincere in their affections , their presence does provide the movie and the main characters with the necessary conflict that keeps our interest until the film 's appropriately austen - like ending .
other thematic devices include a awkwardly inserted reference to the source of the wealth of mansfield park .
. .
the slave trade .
there is also a hint of both lesbianism and incest but neither is carried very far and is soon forgotten .
the motivation for marriage remains the primary thematic thrust .
fanny 's cousin , maria bertram ( victoria hamilton , persuasion ) is an example of one making a poor match , marrying a well - to - do fool who is able to make her comfortable , but never happy .
fanny 's own mother , trapped in her chosen life of squalor warns fanny by admitting that her situation is due to the fact that she " married for love .
" fanny , given those two terrible examples , and faced with the same choice is understandably indecisive as to which way to lean .
the spiritual answer , of course , lies in the middle of those two extremes .
marriage is not a cold , calculating decision based upon self - preservation .
neither is it a senseless decision made in the warm afterglow of a passionate embrace .
in the purest sense , marriage forms an insoluble union whereby two people agree to function as one . " and said , for this cause shall a man leave father and mother , and shall cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh ?
" matthew 19 : 5 [ kjv ] love and logic can be combined .
god 's word contains both .
so does a marriage based upon his truth .
keeps our interest until the film 's appropriately austen - like ending makes perfect sense and improves the film 's audience appeal a central character that is immediately appealing does wonderfully textured work