Version of Jane Austen's novel crams so much contemporary politicking into its central character that it almost fragments altogether. A young girl from poor circumstances grows from a charitable afterthought of the rich relatives with whom she's sent to live, into the primary redemption of that family's moral character. Given that the family lives mainly on the profits of Antiguan slave labor, and that the landscape is strewn with lurking temptations of the flesh, this may not be such a feat; in any event, the film feels more like a series of set-pieces than a coherent whole, and lies in a strange zone between over-exertion and dramatic toothlessness. "This is 1806 for heaven's sake," says a character at one point, although it's rather hard to tell: the banality of the well-to-do milieu is well caught, but Rozema's cinematic 'enhancements' merely generate disengagement without any accompanying analysis. Whether viewed through the prism of past or present, it's markedly less persuasive than other recent Austen adaptations.
Review of Mansfield Park
