Mansfield Park

Peter McGinn

I have always liked Jane Austen’s novels and have read most of them multiple times. Similarly, I am okay with. Scriptwriters taking small liberties with the stories, meaning I don’t dislike it just because of the changes. However, as I watched this adaptation, I found myself not liking it as much as I had other versions. I had to think about why, because I thought a couple of the performances were better than average and the sets and costumes were fine. It seems there was no rhyme or reason for some of the changes. Events or spoken lines occurred at different times than I expected, or a different person said it, and even at least temporary changes in personality of characters occurred a couple of times. It didn’t reach the level of me giving up on the movie or contemplating a dismal rating here, but it was enough to leave my mentally scratching my head and vaguely thinking it could have been better.