"Why, Erica, Why?" Summer Movie Library Series: Mansfield Park

After a brief detour to the Land of Super Indulgent Al Pacino Flicks, and the World of Gay Interracial "Dramas" Possibly Directed by Student Filmmakers, we’re now back to reviewing movies people have actually heard of.

Or not.

Though "Mansfield Park" is based on the Jane Austen novel of the same name, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it’s the one feature film adaptation of an Austen work from the past decade and a half that ended up getting lost in the shuffle. That may or may not be due to the lack of a BOLD FACE name like Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow or Keira Knightley in the lead role.

Maybe the hope was that Frances O’Connor could join some of the names in the previous paragraph without anybody thinking it was a game of "One of These Things is Not Like the Other." Based on her work in this movie, I think she came closer than people realize - if they’d bothered to see the movie.

O’Connor plays Fanny Price who, at 10 years old, is unexpectedly shipped from the poverty of her parents' house (we know they’re poor because there’s a ginormous cockroach moving around the house) to live at Mansfield Park, the estate of her aunt’s husband, Sir Thomas Bertram (Harold Pinter). Apparently, O’Connor also plays a version of Jane Austen, as she recites passages from the author’s "Juvenilia" in letters to Fanny’s younger sister.

One of the problems with the early portion of the movie is that, before I checked this movie’s IMDb page, I had no idea that’s what had actually happened. At first, I gave writer-director Patricia Rozema the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the movie’s jumbled first 20 minutes were meant to convey Fanny’s disorientation at being ripped away from her home and placed in a somewhat hostile environment. Eventually, I decided the movie’s opening was just flat-out rushed and not good.

Fortunately, things settle in after that. Fanny grows into a young woman at "Mansfield Park" alongside Sir Thomas Bertram’s children, including soft-spoken Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller), who becomes her pal, confidante and nothing more. Eventually, Henry and Mary Crawford (Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz), a pair of well-to-do and vaguely incestuous siblings arrive and create a bunch of romantic entanglements.

Now, I’ve never read the book (which this movie apparently butchers), but even if I had, I doubt I would care. I’ve always felt like a movie should be able to stand alone as an individual work in its own medium.

In my opinion, this movie stands alone pretty well. I think all the performances, led by O’Connor and Miller’s subtle work, were very strong. Nivola and Davidtz probably have the showier roles and deliver suitably charismatic (but not over-the-top) performances. Also impressive is Pinter, best known as one of the U.K.’s greatest playwrights, who delivers a VERY strong performance as Thomas Bertram.

Each character is given his or her flaws and his or her virtues, which I always appreciate. I get irritated whenever the choice of who a movie character should end up with is painfully obvious. Fanny’s choice is presented in a patient and even-handed way, which actually made me get more invested in the character.

In fact, this movie’s relative subtlety (and the understatement in O’Connor’s performance) is probably the reason why it never caught on like the other Austen adaptations.

It could also be that the movie’s far from perfect. Rozema also makes several decisions (having the characters freeze ala a Zack Morris "timeout" in the middle of a scene, Mary Crawford’s random flashes of lesbianism, more overt incest-iness from Sir Thomas, and an underdeveloped and heavy-handed subplot involving slavery) that come off as more odd than interesting.

Overall, no matter how much Rozema changed from the book, Austen’s story and her familiar themes (including social status and gender roles) can never be completely deleted and are well-played by a solid cast of actors in this good-looking movie.

Mansfield Park...B+