Frances O'Connor, Jonny Lee Miller, Embeth Davidtz, Harold Pinter
This is Jane Austen with attitude—perhaps too much. Mansfield Park, as directed and adapted by Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing), busts its corsets trying to make Austen's 1814 romantic novel relevant today. While retaining the outlines of Austen's plot, Rozema piles on jarringly pointed references? to feminism and slaveholding and hints at lesbianism. It's enough to make true Austenites drop their teacups. Mansfield Park is worth seeing, though, for an emotionally thoughtful performance by O'Connor (Kiss or Kill) as the heroine who holds out for true love even when it seems that doing so will doom her to a life of poverty. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Plainer Jane would be preferable
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