Review of Mansfield Park (1999) by Hgquinn — 16 Feb 2014

If you're expecting Coronation Street in a period setting, you'll love love love this movie. In that context, it's a fine film. If you're looking for Austen's real Fanny Price, approach with an open mind, as the essence of Fanny, that most complex of Austen's women characters, is missing here. It may be that no actress alive has the skill to portray Fanny's quiet power. In any case, no such actress was required by this screenplay.

As regards the subplot of Britain's colonial history, it's ironic that the West Indies storyline is overplayed in this film, even as its period setting unwittingly references Britain's role in the East Indies, with items such as Lady Bertram's opium addiction, intermittent cries from peacocks, the ladies' gowns of Indian cotton fabrics, plumed turbans and hats, and Kashmir shawls. At the time the book was written, most of Britain's foreign-remitted wealth came British-controlled trade in the Indian subcontinent, including the British-initiated Punjab-China opium trade.