This "Mansfield Park" is Jane Austen as if written by Edith Wharton, and there is a difference between the two social commentators as to sensuality and satirical touch.
The whole audience was getting fed up with the Ashley Wilkes-type hesitant male, though I did enjoy the unusualness of the flighty hunk seeming to be enraptured by the heroine before he showed his unfaithful stripes--even if he was sort of driven off the moral straight and narrow by her lack of guidance.
I had seen Roczema's previous indie Canadian feature and this was far more straight-forward story-telling than that head-scratching feminist tract. The lead actresses in both save the movie.
I didn't mind the talking to the camera as she reads letters and the set pieces as the narrator comments on the scene.
The settings are the usual Natural Heritage Trust tourist views, but this is not the Austen touch. Much better were "Persuasion" and "Clueless."
(originally written 12/27/1999)
The whole audience was getting fed up with the Ashley Wilkes-type hesitant male, though I did enjoy the unusualness of the flighty hunk seeming to be enraptured by the heroine before he showed his unfaithful stripes--even if he was sort of driven off the moral straight and narrow by her lack of guidance.
I had seen Roczema's previous indie Canadian feature and this was far more straight-forward story-telling than that head-scratching feminist tract. The lead actresses in both save the movie.
I didn't mind the talking to the camera as she reads letters and the set pieces as the narrator comments on the scene.
The settings are the usual Natural Heritage Trust tourist views, but this is not the Austen touch. Much better were "Persuasion" and "Clueless."
(originally written 12/27/1999)