Review of Metropolitan (1990) by Elgan D — 16 Sep 2010

Again I find myself at a disadvantage for having not read the book... in this case, Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park", which this is apparently a loose adaptation of. Mostly I was reminded of "The Great Gatsby", although Stillman isn't quite as enchanted by the upper class as Fitzgerald was.

He casts them as rather naive, but perhaps that's more a function of their age than their upbringing. The dialogue is quite witty in places, unfortunately the acting doesn't hold it up well...

although no one is outright horrible, there's not one good performance in the bunch. I have to wonder a little bit if this might be intentional -- if "Mansfield Park" is about a bunch of kids putting on a play, then maybe Stillman deliberately made his film feel like exactly that.

Somehow I don't think so. And it's difficult to peg how Stillman feels about these characters: is he mocking their attempts at intellectualism, or does he admire their educations? Does he consider their relative puritanism to be dated, or refreshing? Is their imminent downfall that Charlie discusses justly deserved, or quietly tragic? Pondering these questions makes a somewhat unremarkable film more intriguing to me, although I wish more thought had been put into the cinematic aspects.