Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As an Austen scholar, I was bracing myself for something that would take liberties with the novel, but it seems that the screenwriter must surely have read only the Cliff notes. Even then, the early part's first-person narrative made me wonder if s/he had picked up her abbreviated version of Jane Eyre instead. An estate called Mansfield Park is indeed involved, but that's about as close it gets. Even such a massive rewrite might have been tolerable with some accurate historical research, but there are SO many funny mistakes in the representation of both the characters and the period that it was hard to believe this production could appear on (the program once known as) Masterpiece Theatre. One could hardly determine which was longer and bounced more--Fanny's full and unbound hair or her full and nearly unbound cleavage, as the charity-case companion races shrieking and laughing through the estate. Nor should you look for the novel's complacent, drowsy, plump Lady Bertram (for whom so many have a secret affection); the beautiful but miscast Jemma Redgrave presents an elegant, intelligent mother with sharp insight. But there's worse. When Henry Crawford drags Maria behind the curtain and declares himself her lover as they grope and grab, I nearly gagged; and when Edmund sits next to a sprawling Fanny after the picnic (no ball) and tells her how lovely she looks, I did gag. Plus, Fanny's absolutely central visit to Portsmith is axed. I don't mind streamlining when the end product is smooth and historically and literarily accurate, but this production was jumpy and jumbled. When the whole thing finally closes with a WALTZ in 1810, it was I who was shrieking with laughter--eveyone knows that dance did not come out until 20 years later and THEN was considered very racy; certainly not something a reserved clergyman from the upper classes would have initiated at his rural Tory wedding. Good lord, who wrote this mess anyway, Barbara Cartland? Which is a real shame, because the marvelous actors and actresses (except for the lovely Miss Redgrave) looked right for their parts--and I'm sure we'll see them again in hopefully better material. But let's face it, folks; modern screenwriters are just too terrified of frail, gentle Fanny to bring her to us as Austen created her.