It seems even a minor novel written 200 years ago can be subject to a heavy interpretation belonging solely to the present. But this start and stop script is related only superficially to its apparent source. On another level scenery and sets are only so-so when compared to an abundance of other films set in that time and place (think Merchant-Ivory). Nothing relieves a tale in which characters are inconsistent as to development from one episode to the next, so unlike an original Jane Austen cohesion. "Clunky" is the word that comes to mind as one character grows old and another stays rigidly the same in either physical appearance or costume. And, finally, in one scene we see a ship at Portsmouth flying a Spanish flag in the wrong place, on a mainmast. Details matter.
Review of Mansfield Park
